United States of America v. Dominique Peeples

New Orleans, Louisiana criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with Trafficking 17-Year-Old Female to Perform Commercial Sex Acts

n Memphis Man Sentenced to Seventeen Years for Trafficking 17-Year-Old Female to Perform Commercial Sex Acts

DOMINIQUE PEEPLES ("PEEPLES”), age 28, from Memphis, Tennessee, was sentenced on May 28, 2025, after previously pleading guilty to Sex Trafficking of a Minor, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1591(a)(1), 1591(b)(2), 1594(a), and 2.



PEEPLES brought a seventeen-year-old female ("Minor Victim”) from Memphis, Tennessee to New Orleans, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; and Houston, Texas, and required her to engage in commercial sex acts. During this time, PEEPLES was aware of Minor Victim's age. PEEPLES advertised Minor Victim on websites commonly used to advertise sexual services in exchange for money and kept all or most of the proceeds from her work. PEEPLES waited in a vehicle and watched Minor Victim while she solicited commercial sex "dates.” Minor Victim worked under PEEPLES' supervision between August of 2020 and her escape in mid-January 2021. After Minor Victim ran away, PEEPLES posted a video on social media in which he boasted about exploiting Minor Victim and pointed firearms at the screen.



U.S. District Court Judge Sarah S. Vance sentenced PEEPLES to seventeen (17) years in prison. PEEPLES was also sentenced to ten (10) years of supervised release after release from prison. Judge Vance further ordered PEEPLES to pay $120,000 in restitution to Minor Victim, and a $100 mandatory special assessment fee. PEEPLES will also have to register as a sex offender.



This case was part of a broader investigation involving defendants JEREMY TALBERT and MACEO ROBERTS, both of whom have pleaded guilty for related sex trafficking crimes. In February 2025, U.S. District Court Judge Susie Morgan sentenced ROBERTS to 22.5 years of imprisonment for conspiring to traffic three minors and two adults. In March 2025, U.S. District Court Judge Lance Africk sentenced TALBERT to 18 years for trafficking a fourteen-year-old minor to New Orleans.



These cases were 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 United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.



Acting U.S. Attorney Simpson praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New Orleans Police Department, and the Memphis Police Department in investigating this matter. Assistant United States Attorneys Maria M. Carboni of the Financial Crimes Unit and Jordan Ginsberg, Supervisor of the Public Corruption Unit, are in charge of the prosecution.