Dallas Sex Offender Who Smuggled 15-year-old Across Border for Sex Gets 10 Years in Prison

A Dallas sex offender was sentenced to over 10 years in prison Wednesday after admitting he traveled to Honduras to pay a homeless 15-year-old boy for sex and tried to smuggle the victim into the U.S. to continue the abuse.Donald Frederick Bollinger, 64, pleaded guilty to engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, coercion and enticement of a minor, coercion and enticement to illicit sexual conduct and travel with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. When Bollinger met his victim in February 2012, the boy spent his days selling handicrafts to tourists and slept at night on a beach without shelter, according to federal court documents. Bollinger offered the child food and a hotel room, and paid him $100 for sex.Bollinger made 13 more trips from Dallas to Roatan, Honduras over the next two years, each time paying the victim or the victim's family to have the boy meet him in hotels for sex, according to court documents.In spring 2014, Bollinger paid a smuggler to bring the victim across the border, but at least six attempts were unsuccessful, an investigator determined. When Bollinger couldn't find a way to bring the child into the U.S., he rented a room for him in Reynosa, Mexico, while Bollinger stayed in McAllen and walked across the border to meet him periodically.The victim was 17 years old when border patrol agents apprehended him in April 2016. He told them of the previous smuggling attempts, as well as the abuse he'd endured in Honduras and Mexico.Bollinger was registered as a sex offender for life in 2005, when he finished his sentence for a 1999 possession with intent to promote child pornography conviction.  Continue reading...