Texas Man Sentenced for Coercion & Enticement of a Minor

BISMARCK – U.S. Attorney Timothy Q. Purdon announced that on June 12, 2014, Lawrence E. Hundley Jr., 50, Porter, Texas, pleaded guilty and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Daniel L. Hovland on a charge of coercion & enticement of a minor.

Judge Hovland sentenced Hundley to serve five years and three months in federal prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. Hundley was ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Crime Victim’s Fund.

Hundley was arrested on Nov. 22, 2013, as a result of Operation Vigilant Guardian, a joint anti-Human Trafficking investigation by the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations aimed at “johns” trying to arrange sex with underage human trafficking victims online. The investigation resulted in the arrest on federal charges of 14 defendants in Williston and Dickinson, N.D., in October and November of 2013.

This investigation was conducted by the North Dakota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and was a cooperative effort of Homeland Security Investigations, the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and the

Bismarck Police Department, with the assistance of the Burleigh County State’s Attorney’s Office.
This case was brought as a 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 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.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Delorme prosecuted the case.