Washington Man Indicted For Transporting Teen Girls For Sex
A federal grand jury has indicted a Washington man on two felony counts related to driving two teenage girls from there to Wyoming for sex, according to court records.
David Peter Vier is charged with one count of transporting minors across state lines for sexual activity and one count of being a registered sex offender committing a felony involving a minor, according to the indictment handed up by the grand jury on Thursday.
If convicted, Vier faces a minimum of 10 years of imprisonment on each count, according to federal sentencing guidelines.
In addition to the potential minimum 20-year sentence, he also would be ordered to pay up to $500,000 in fines, be placed on supervised probation for five years to life, and pay $10,000 to the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act.
Vier, who was 63 when arrested in January, was originally charged in a criminal complaint on Feb. 7 with one count of sex trafficking.
He is being held without bond and will have his initial appearance and arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kelly Rankin in Cheyenne at 11:30 a.m. Monday.
The case began on Jan. 20 when Sweetwater County Sheriff's deputies arrested Vier at Little America west of Green River on Interstate 80 after receiving a report from a Little America employee about two girls hiding from a man, according to law enforcement reports.
According to an FBI affidavit, an unidentified person from Kansas reported the girls were being taken from Washington to Kansas.
Law enforcement officers found the girls and Vier at the restaurant. Vier was taken into custody and questioned. The Wyoming Highway Patrol placed the girls in protective custody.
The girls told law enforcement officers their mother recently had kicked them out of their house and they met Vier at a home improvement store in Seattle. He agreed to drive them to Little America, about halfway to Wichita, Kan., for $100. Before leaving, the girls had a conversation about sex partners and Vier agreed to be their sex partner, according to the affidavit.
A Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office news release said Vier told the girls that he was going to have sex with them when they arrived at the hotel. The girls agreed they had to run when they arrived because they feared they would be sexually assaulted. When they escaped from Vier, they took his cell phone to call for help.
After Vier's arrest, law enforcement officers obtained a search warrant and searched his pickup.
They found a large duffel bag with restraint items including handcuffs, tape, sex aids, mouth gags, whips, clamps, a dog collar and leash, and three large fixed-blade knives. Officers also found a partially used vial of Amidate used for general anesthesia; and a partially used bottle of Diphenhydramine, an antihistamine with one use being inducing sleep.