A 46-year-old Bennington man is facing child pornography charges after a nearly two-year investigation involving local and federal authorities.
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Andrew Foltz has been charged with two counts of possession of child sexual abuse material. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office worked with the FBI and Nebraska State Patrol to build the case against him.
According to court documents, the investigation began in January 2024 when Yahoo reported suspected child sexual abuse material discovered in an email account to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. That tip led investigators to another man who prosecutors say was communicating with Foltz. According to the arrest affidavit, those communications spanned from December 2020 through August 2024.
Captain Nate Kovarik, who oversees the Criminal Investigations Bureau that investigated Foltz, said technology companies' detection software is crucial for law enforcement.
"It's extremely helpful. Without that there wouldn't be really a way to identify people, the files that people have in their cloud storage," Kovarik said.
In March 2025, Douglas County deputies and FBI agents served a search warrant at Foltz's Bennington home and seized electronic devices. According to the affidavit, Foltz admitted to investigators that he sent photos of a child and had sexual conversations about that child with another person.
"We encourage parents to have those conversations with their children about what appropriate boundaries are and what is and isn't OK to do on the Internet," Kovarik said.
Bennington Public Schools confirmed Foltz volunteered as a statistician for the high school football program, with his last season being 2024. In a statement, the district said it "follows established volunteer procedures, which include background checks for any volunteer who could have unsupervised contact with students."
Jessica Tippery, Director of Child Services at Project Harmony, said there is no stereotype for what a potential child predator could look like.
"It really could be anybody. We see a lot of children who come here and it's somebody that they're close with and oftentimes it is a surprise to the family because it is somebody that is really close to them," Tippery said.
Tippery said concrete steps parents can take to protect their children include having open conversations with children, knowing who children are around, preventing one-on-one situations, watching for behavioral changes and educating children about technology safety.
"1 in 10 children may be abused by the age of 18, and so it really could be anybody that it could happen to. So whether it be your own child or a child that you know of, it's so important to make sure that everybody has the education and resources that they need," Tippery said.
Foltz has posted bond and is out of jail. His next court appearance will be in district court for arraignment.
Each count is a Class IIA felony in Nebraska, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and could also require sex offender registration.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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