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Press Release

Lapwai Man Sentenced for Sexual Abuse of a Minor

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Idaho

COEUR D’ALENE –  Wendall Keith Antell, 48, of Lapwai, Idaho, was sentenced today in United States District Court to 121 months in prison followed by five years supervised release for aggravated sexual abuse of a minor, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.  Senior U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge also ordered Antell to pay $50,000 in restitution.  Antell pleaded guilty to the charge on May 16, 2016.

According to the plea agreement, Antell, an Indian, admitted that he began sexually abusing the victim in 1991 or 1992, when she was five or six.  Antell’s sexual abuse of the victim progressed to penetrating the victim’s genital opening with his finger.  This type of sexual abuse of the victim began when the victim was nine and continued until she was 17.  Antell admitted that he sexually abused the victim with the intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade, arouse, or gratify his sexual desire.  This sexual abuse occurred within the exterior boundaries of the Nez Perce Indian Reservation.

The case was investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Nez Perce Tribal Police.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

Updated December 7, 2016

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Project Safe Childhood
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