Source: Office of United States Attorneys
RAPID CITY – United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced that a federal grand jury has indicted a Box Elder, South Dakota, woman for Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, Enticement of a Minor Using the Internet, Receipt of Child Pornography, and Possession of Child Pornography.
In August 2024, a federal grand jury indicted Duncan Sioux Witt, age 28, originally from Kansas. She was extradited from South Carolina after being arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service while working in a private school. Witt appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Daneta L. Wollmann on November 22, 2024, and pleaded not guilty to the Indictment.
The maximum penalty upon conviction is a mandatory minimum of 15 years up to life in custody and/or a $250,000 fine, up to life of supervised release, and $100 to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. Restitution may also be ordered.
Witt was previously employed at Douglas High School in Box Elder as a special education paraprofessional teacher’s aide. The alleged victim was a student receiving special education services at the time of Witt’s crimes. In February 2024, Witt began sending the boy sexually explicit messages, and sexually explicit images and videos of herself, using Snapchat. She induced the boy to send her sexually explicit pictures and videos of himself, which she saved in her Snapchat account.
The charges are merely accusations and Witt is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
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 the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.
The investigation is being conducted by the Box Elder Police Department and the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Knox is prosecuting the case.
Witt was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending trial. A trial date has been set for January 28, 2025.