July 29, 2015

Topeka Man Sentenced to 14 Years for Sex Trafficking of 15-Year-Old Girl

TOPEKA, KS—A Topeka man was sentenced Tuesday to 14 years in federal prison on a federal charge of offering a 15-year-old girl for commercial sex, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said.

Dominique Emanuel Tyson, 25, Topeka, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking of a child. In his plea, he admitted he took a 15-year-old girl to a motel to meet a man who had seen her picture in an advertisement on Backpage.com. Tyson did not know that the customer was working undercover for the Topeka Police Department and the FBI.

The investigation began when Topeka police received a call from a community corrections officer saying the girl had run away from her placement. The officer spotted a photo of her on Backpage.com listing her as an escort. On June 11, 2013, an undercover investigator called the number on the advertisement and arranged to meet the girl at a motel in Topeka. Tyson dropped her off and drove away. Officers stopped his car, where they found a tablet computer with files containing the same photos of the girl that appeared in the ad.

Grissom commended the Topeka Police Department, the FBI and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Kenney for their work on the case.