Attorney Pleads Guilty to Child Sex-Abuse Charge

OKLAHOMA CITY (CN) - An Oklahoma City attorney has pleaded guilty to traveling to Peru to have sex with a minor, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Michael Dean Billings, 60, admitted to flying to Iquitos, Peru, from January 2011 to February 2013 to have sex with a Peruvian girl under the age of 18. He faces up to 30 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and registration as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Billings was remanded into custody and will be sentenced within 90 days.

Indicted in October 2014, Billings was accused of traveling to Peru for a decade to have sex with children. He was charged with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children, conspiracy to travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual contact and conspiracy to engage in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places.

Prosecutors said Billings and others "conspired to commit sex trafficking of children by recruiting and obtaining children in Peru to engage in commercial sex acts and further conspired to travel from Oklahoma City to Iquitos, Peru."

"Billings and others known and unknown to the grand jury, conspired and agreed with each other to knowingly, in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce, recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, obtain and maintain by any means [victims] knowing and in reckless disregard of the fact that force, threats of force, fraud and coercion ... that the victims had not attained the age of 18 years and would be caused to engage in commercial sex acts," the four-page criminal indictment said.

Follow @davejourno

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit