Omaha Man Convicted of Sex Trafficking a Minor

United States Attorney Steven Russell announced that Dalonte Foard, 25, of Omaha, Nebraska, was found guilty today following a four-day jury trial in federal court for Conspiracy to Commit Sex Trafficking of a Minor and Sex Trafficking of a Minor. The Honorable Brian C. Buescher scheduled Foard’s sentencing for April 19, 2023, at 10:30 a.m. Foard faces up to life in prison, with a mandatory minimum of ten years.

The evidence at trial showed that in September 2020 two Omaha foster children went missing from their foster home. Foard had picked up the two girls, aged 16 and 17, and driven them to a hotel where co-Defendant Thomas Holbert posted online advertisements promoting the minors for commercial sex acts. The following morning, Foard sexually assaulted one of the minors to “break her in” and then posted a new online commercial sex advertisement for her. A man responding to Foard’s ad came to the hotel and Foard waited on the stairs in the hallway while the man paid $60 to engage in a sex act with the victim. After the man left, Foard took $50 of the $60 paid to the victim.

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 Attorney’s 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 Homeland Security Investigations, the Omaha Police Department, and the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office.