Former Dea Agent Sentenced to 57 Months in Prison For Coercing and Enticing a Minor to Engage in Sex
Las Vegas, Nev. - Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada, Ellen B. Knowlton, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for Nevada, and Clark County Sheriff Bill Young of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, announce that STEVEN KINNEY, age 43, a resident of Las Vegas and former Special Agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency in Las Vegas, Nevada, was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Lloyd D. George to 57 months in prison for his guilty plea to coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, a federal felony offense.
According to the court records, in early February 2002, at a Walmart store in Las Vegas, Nevada, STEVEN KINNEY left an anonymous note for a 15-year-old boy offering to pay the boy $50 for oral sex. The note directed the boy to meet the defendant at the payphones or to contact him at an e-mail address. On February 5, 2002, thinking that the defendant was a young girl, the boy e-mailed STEVEN KINNEY at the address provided in the note. For the next several weeks, KINNEY e-mailed the boy back and forth attempting to coerce and persuade him into having oral sex with him. The boy eventually became scared of the defendant's advances and told the defendant by e-mail that he had a girlfriend. The boy also blocked the defendant from sending any additional e-mails to him.
STEVEN KINNEY also recently pleaded guilty in the Eighth Judicial District Court for Clark County, Nevada, to 15 counts of soliciting sex from a minor. KINNEY is awaiting sentencing on those charges. In May 2003, STEVEN KINNEY was arrested and charged in Vicksburg, Mississippi, with approaching minors for sex. Those acts occurred while KINNEY was released on bond for the instant federal offense. The charges are pending.
STEVEN KINNEY was ordered to serve three years of supervised release following his release from prison, and will be prohibited from having contact with minors unless accompanied by an approved adult.
The case was investigated by Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Detectives with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, members of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nancy J. Koppe.
