Pierre Man Sentenced for Possession of Child Pornography

United States Attorney Ron Parsons announced that a Pierre, South Dakota, man convicted of Possession of Child Pornography was sentenced on July 29, 2019, by U.S. District Judge Roberto A. Lange.

David Foster, age 36, was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison, followed by 5 years of supervised release, $130,500 in restitution, a $5,000 assessment to the Domestic Trafficking Victims’ Fund, and a special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund in the amount of $100.

Foster was indicted by a federal grand jury on January 17, 2018.  He pled guilty on May 1, 2019.

In early 2017, an agent with the Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) initiated an undercover operation targeting chat rooms and child sexual exploitation on the “Kik” Messenger application. During the operation, the Kik group “No Limits” was discovered.  An HSI agent recorded the activity of the group to include capturing images and videos of child exploitation/pornography that were shared among the group.  Each member of the group received all of the content (images/videos) shared by other users in the group each time a user logged into the Kik application.  One of the members of the group was identified as Foster, who was using the screen name “smartdguy”.

On May 4, 2017, a search warrant was executed in Pierre.  A forensic analysis determined Foster’s iPhone6 contained over 4,700 images (including duplicates) of child pornography.  A review of the videos on Foster’s iPhone6 revealed over 100 videos (including duplicates) of child pornography. 

As part of his sentence, Foster was also ordered to pay $130,500 to 18 different victims whose images were found on his phone. 

This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative of the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

This case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security Investigations.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Troy R. Morley prosecuted the case.

Foster was immediately turned over to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.