EAGLE GROVE — A former Eagle Grove police officer will serve jail time after pleading guilty to sending obscene images to a minor.

Colt Richardson, 28, was fired from the Eagle Grove Police Department in December 2024 after he was accused of repeatedly sending inappropriate Snapchat messages to a teen and of sending an inappropriate image to her. According to court documents, at least one of those messages was sent while he was on duty.

Richardson pleaded guilty in January to two counts of disseminating obscene materials to a minor and one charge of first-degree harassment.

According to court documents filed on April 3, Richardson was sentenced to 30 days in jail on one charge and up to two years in prison on the other two. The prison term was suspended in lieu of one year of probation.

“The Court believes that a combination of real jail time, potential prison time, and probation best achieves the Court’s dual goals of promoting the Defendant’s rehabilitation and protecting the community from further acts of the Defendant,” said Judge Joseph Tofilon in court documents.

Richardson’s defense attorney Grant Gangestad had asked the court to impose a deferred judgment, noting that Richardson had already enrolled in sex offender treatment, had lost his marriage, his law enforcement career, and his role within the church as a result of the arrest. Prosecutors asked the court to impose consecutive 30-day jail terms for each charge.

“He was a police officer in a school. He was there to protect the students,” Tofilon said in court documents. “Instead, he turned one of them into his victim.”

According to court documents, Richardson must also register as a sex offender and cannot contact the victim for five years.