A Lincoln woman who prosecutors say actively participated in the sex trafficking of her teenage daughter and profited off of it went to prison Thursday.
The Journal Star has chosen not to name the woman in order to protect the identity of her daughter.
Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Jason Cooper detailed numerous attempts by Lincoln police to talk to the girl and her mother after reports to school counselors and others starting in August 2019.
"(The defendant) not only did nothing, but she actively kept (her daughter) from the Child Advocacy Center and the Lincoln Police Department," Cooper said.
Two years later, the girl, then 17, told police that she had participated in hundreds of sex acts with around 30 men for money since she was 13 or 14 at the encouragement of her mother.
The girl said she used a Snapchat account on her mother's phone to connect with the men and deposited the money into her mom's bank account.
Cooper said when police confronted the teen's mother about her prostitution she said: "I don't care."
Despite everything that has followed since then — both the criminal case and a juvenile court case she appealed — the mother "still blames everyone else instead of taking responsibility," he said.
"(The defendant) is delusional about the facts that brought her here," Cooper said.
He said the victim has a tough exterior now but is a scared young girl, alone in the world, left to deal with her trauma for years to come, manifesting in drug use and homelessness and everything that goes along with it.
"All of that could have been avoided if she'd had a north star. Someone to guide her," the prosecutor said. "(Her mother) not only fell short of that, she actively pushed (her daughter) in the opposite direction."
Defense attorney Scott Tingelhoff said his client denies she was involved in any kind of sex trafficking of her daughter or had access to her daughter's Snapchat account or bank account.
"She was not aware of any of the activities until later in the game, and she attempted to stop what she could," he said. "Looking back, there was probably more she could have done."
He said she's a very loving mom and doesn't blame her daughter for what happened.
"She struggles with this every day trying to figure out what she could've done," Tingelhoff said.
The 43-year-old Lincoln woman said when her daughter dropped out of school and she encouraged her to get her driver's license, a GED and a job, she only ever wanted her daughter to have the skills to be an independent adult.
"I will forever feel as though I failed her. Not only I, but the system as well," she said.
In the end, Lancaster County District Court Judge Darla Ideus told the woman the evidence was substantial that she had actively participated in the sex trafficking of her child.
"It's difficult to think of too many worse things that a mother could do or be involved in," she said. "Despite all of it you still do not take responsibility for any of it."
Ideus read from the victim's letter, who said she didn't feel like her mother was getting justice because no matter her sentence "it will be less than the amount of time that she sexually abused me and had men sexually abuse me."
She said her mom sex trafficked her for three years, the maximum punishment her mother faced Thursday on the felony child abuse charge to which she'd pleaded in a deal with prosecutors.
"When I become somebody and do great things in life, my mother will watch from the sidelines and not be a part of it. I guess that is where I will get my justice," Ideus said, reading from the letter.
And then she sentenced the woman to the three-year max.