Spokane - Joseph H. Harrington, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced that today United States District Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson sentenced
Jerry William Lindsey, Jr., age 34, of Hauser, Idaho, for Attempted Enticement of a Minor, which a jury found him guilty of committing. Judge Peterson sentenced Lindsey to a ten-year term of imprisonment, to be followed by a five-year term of court supervision after he is released from federal prison. Lindsey will be required to register as a sex offender.
According to information disclosed during the February, 2017 jury trial, Lindsey posted an ad entitled, “18 or so" on a well-known local website in December of 2015. The ad contained explicit photographs and described sexual acts. An undercover detective working with the Southeast Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (“ICAC") and Homeland Security Investigations responded to the ad, posing as a local thirteen year old. During the course of the communications with the undercover officer, Lindsey repeatedly discussed the graphic sexual acts that he wished to engage in with the purported thirteen year old and sent explicit images of himself to accompany the descriptions of such acts.
Lindsey, a mechanic with a plumbing company, also sought to meet the purported minor on two occasions when he traveled to the Tri-Cities area for work. On one such occasion, Lindsey directed the purported thirteen year old to a residence in Pasco where he was working to engage in sexual acts. He initially suggested that she sneak out to meet him after her parents were asleep, but later provided directions to the purported minor child to meet him that afternoon. Law-enforcement-members of the ICAC team subsequently surveilled Lindsey waiting outside of the residence. Lindsey was later arrested and interviewed by ICAC officers and agents with Homeland Security Investigations. Lindsey advised during the interview that if the purported thirteen-year-old child had arrived at the Pasco residence, he “would have been in a lot of trouble." Lindsey was charged with Attempted Enticement of a Minor, tried by a jury in Richland, Washington, and found guilty.
Harrington stated, “The sentence imposed in this case reflects how serious the crime of enticement of a minor is, including attempts to do so. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington continues to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of child sexual exploitation and abuse cases. The officers and agents with the Southeast Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations must be commended for their strong working partnership and tireless commitment to investigating this case."
This case was pursued as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May, 2006 by the United States Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. The Project Safe Childhood Initiative (“PSC") has five major components:
• Integrated federal, state, and local efforts to investigate and prosecute child exploitation cases, and to identify and rescue children;
• Participation of PSC partners in coordinated national initiatives;
• Increased federal enforcement in child pornography and enticement cases;
• Training of federal, state, and local law enforcement agents; and
• Community awareness and educational programs.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc.
For information about internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."
This investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations and the Southeast Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Laurel J. Holland and Stephanie J. Lister, Assistant United States Attorneys for the Eastern District of Washington.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
