Two Sentenced in Federal Court
Truck Driver Sentenced to 29 Years for Transporting a Minor Across State Lines to Engage in Illegal Sexual Activity
United States Attorney Susan Lehr announced that David Mark Platt, 58, formerly of Washington state, was sentenced on May 28, 2024, in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska, for one count of transporting a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity. Senior United States District Judge John M. Gerrard sentenced Platt to 348 months’ (29 years’) imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. He was further sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release following his release from prison. Additionally, Platt was ordered to pay $29,000 in restitution.
In Spring of 2022, Platt met a 15-year-old through social media website Quora where the minor victim was posting about wanting to run away from home. Platt made a plan to pick up the minor victim from California and travel across the country with the minor victim in his semi-truck. The minor victim told Platt their age throughout conversations with him on social media. On May 12, 2022, Platt picked up the minor victim and shortly thereafter the minor victim was reported missing by their family.
On May 15, 2022, Platt’s semi-truck was pulled over by law enforcement near Lexington, Nebraska, and the minor victim was identified as a passenger. During the stop, Platt admitted to touching the minor victim in a sexual manner. The minor victim was taken to a child advocacy center, where they disclosed that Platt had sexually assaulted them each day of the four-day trip. The minor victim told the same information to a medical examiner.
Search warrant results from the social media platform where Platt and minor victim communicated revealed that the minor victim did inform Platt of their age, that he expected the minor to have sexual intercourse with him, the plan for picking the minor victim up and travelling, and other various things he expected of the minor victim. The search warrant results additionally showed Platt’s sexual preference for preteen to teenage girls and his pattern in attempting to find a child to travel with him for sex and his preference for BDSM sexual relationships.
In 2012, Platt was found guilty of sexual assault in violation of Texas Penal Code § 22.011(a)(1) which is a felony in the second degree. He was on the sex offender registry at the time of the crime in this case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
This case was investigated by the Nebraska State Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lexington Man Sentenced for Distributing Methamphetamine
United States Attorney Susan Lehr announced that Eswin Lopez-Bravo, 52, of Lexington, Nebraska, was sentenced on May 28, 2024, in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska for distribution of methamphetamine. Senior United States District Judge John M. Gerrard sentenced Lopez-Bravo to 54 months’ imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. After Lopez-Bravo’s release from prison, he will begin a 5-year term of supervised release. In addition to the prison sentence, Lopez-Bravo will forfeit $4,106 to the United States.
In January of 2023, based on information that Lopez-Bravo was selling drugs out of a hotel in Lexington, law enforcement obtained a search warrant for his room and located Lopez-Bravo and another individual, who had an active federal warrant and was arrested. The room was registered to Lopez-Bravo and had been for quite some time, despite the fact Lopez-Bravo also had a house, where he resided with his wife and children. In the course of this investigation, officers learned that Lopez-Bravo distributed meth out of the room. During the search of the room, officers located crystal shards that tested positive for methamphetamine, plastic baggies concealed under the mattress and on a nightstand, and 13.5 grams of meth concealed under a lamp. Subsequent lab testing confirmed 12 grams of the 13.5 grams recovered was pure methamphetamine. Also recovered from Lopez-Bravo was $1,712 in U.S. currency. Lopez-Bravo stated that this was from his work at a feedlot, but subsequent investigation found that his most recent paycheck had only been $800.
On June 15, 2023, Lopez-Bravo was arrested on a state arrest warrant. A search incident to this arrest located 9.8 grams of meth in his front pants pocket and an additional $2,394 in U.S. currency.
Pursuant to this investigation, Lopez-Bravo’s phone was also seized and searched. Text messages found on the phone were indicative of the buying and selling of narcotics, including on behalf of an individual known to law enforcement to be incarcerated in the state of California. Multiple photos on the phone showed several thousand dollars’ worth of money orders being sent to North Dakota and California at this individual’s request.
This case was investigated by the CODE Drug Task Force, Lexington Police Department, Dawson County Sheriff’s Office, the Nebraska State Patrol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
