Sex crime case against principal turned down

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office announced yesterday it has turned down a sex crimes case against former Buckeye Union High School principal Joseph Kinney. According to MCAO, there was "no reasonable likelihood of conviction."

Kinney was arrested and charged Sept. 3 with one count of luring a minor for sexual exploitation after allegedly engaging in explicit conversations with an undercover, out-of-state FBI agent who posed as a 12-year-old girl on the app Whisper.

According to the police report, Kinney communicated on the app with the undercover agent on two occasions in July of this year. Whisper is a social media app which allows for anonymous posting and messaging between users. The report detailed explicit sexual messages exchanged between Kinney and the undercover agent including the agent sending a clothed, age-regressed photo of a young female to Kinney and him returning messages saying he did not mind her age and that she was hot.

However, according to police records, Kinney stated Sept. 3 that he believed the person he was speaking with on Whisper was an adult engaging in "fantasy" play pretending to be a minor.

"Joseph admitted that he has used the Whisper app on his phone," reads the police report. "Joseph said he used Whisper because he liked that it seemed like fantasy and it was anonymous."

During the interview, Kinney told police he talked to numerous female users on the app who claimed they were underage. However, Kinney told police he "never actually believed they were underage and assumed they were all adults and just engaged in fantasy chat and role-playing."

"Kinney recalled talking to a 12-year-old female," reads the report, "He said he remembers engaging in a sexualized conversation but thought it was just role-playing and fantasy chat. He confirmed they never established that it was just for role play, and the female only told him she was 12 years old. In his mind, he just assumed it was role play.

"The crime of luring requires proof that the suspect knew or should have known that the person he was communicating with was a minor (under 18)," reads MCAO's statement. "In this case, there was no actual minor; the communication was with an undercover officer. While the crime of luring can be committed when a suspect is communicating with an undercover officer, there must be proof that a suspect believes he or she is directing their communications to a minor. Proving belief or intent is often achieved through other actions or comments. Based on the available evidence in this case, the State is unable to prove the suspect was intending to lure a minor for Sexual Exploitation.  In addition, the undercover officer provided a photo to the suspect to show that she was under the age of 18. However, the photo itself was insufficient to prove she was underage.  In order to demonstrate intent, prosecutors require evidence that the suspect intended to follow through and engage in sexual conduct with a minor.  There was no such evidence in this case.  The undercover officer and the suspect were not in the same state, and the investigative steps normally used to prove this intent in court were not taken in this case."

At the high school's Sept. 9 governing board meeting, superintendent Dr. Steve Bebee presented the recommendation to terminate Kinney as principal. Academic Assistant Principal Kristin Koke is filling the role in the interim, according to a Sept. 3 press release from the school.

InBuckeye has requested comment from Dr. Bebee.