Overton Man Sentenced for Enticing a Juvenile

United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that Paul Michael Tegeler, 68, formerly of Overton, Nebraska, was sentenced today in Lincoln, Nebraska, to 7 years in prison by United States District Judge John M. Gerrard for coercion and enticement of a juvenile.  After serving his sentence, Tegeler will be required to remain on supervised release for 10 years and register as a sex offender.

In April of 2014, the Nebraska State Patrol was contacted by law enforcement officers with the Arapahoe County, Colorado, Sheriff’s Office with a report that Paul M. Tegeler had been identified as an individual who had placed an advertisement on Craigslist looking for a sex slave.  Law enforcement officials, using the persona of a 13-year-old female child, began communicating with Tegeler.  During the conversations Tegeler described sexually explicit conduct to the female child and invited the female child to meet him for sex.  Also during those online conversations with the undercover deputy, Tegeler asked the female child to send him nude images.  The investigation culminated when Tegeler  sent the female child a one-way bus ticket to travel from her home in Colorado to Lexington, Nebraska, so Tegeler could then take her to his residence in Overton, Nebraska and have sex with her.  Tegeler was arrested by the Nebraska State Patrol in May of 2014, when he arrived at the bus stop in Lexington, Dawson County, Nebraska, expecting to meet the child he had been communicating with.

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 Arapahoe County Colorado Sheriff’s Office.