United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that Dennis Lewis, age 43 of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was sentenced for transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. The Honorable Joseph F. Bataillon sentenced Lewis to 10 years in prison. After his release from prison Lewis will begin a 5 year term of supervised release.
For approximately one year, Lewis was communicating with 14 year old from the Bellevue area that he had met on Facebook. In April of this year the volume of Facebook communications and text messaging increased. The content of a lot of the communication was sexual in nature. This case culminated when Lewis drove to the Bellevue area, picked up that minor and transported that minor to Tulsa for the purpose of engaging in sexual intercourse. He was arrested by the Tulsa Police Department prior to any sexual intercourse occurring.
The case was prosecuted as a part of Project Safe Childhood. Project Safe Childhood is an initiative of the United States Department of Justice designed to protect children from individuals who would exploit them online or offline and includes individuals who travel in interstate commerce and fail to register as sex offenders as required by law. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
