United States Attorney
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.