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Press Release

Former Dance Instructor Pleads Guilty to Interstate Travel to Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Rhode Island
Admits to providing alcohol then assaulting fifteen-year-old student

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Keith Sampson, 37, formerly of Providence, RI, pleaded guilty in federal court in Providence today to interstate travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct, admitting to the court that in December 2007 he transported one of his dance studio students, a fifteen-year-old girl, from Rhode Island to Easton, Mass., for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct, announced United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha and Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Field Office of the FBI.

According to court documents and information presented to the court, on December 29, 2007, the girl had been left in Sampson's care by her mother on the pretense that she would be spending the night at Sampson's Providence residence in the company of his wife and child. Instead, Sampson admitted to the court that he drove the victim to the home of a relative in Easton, Mass., where he provided the victim with alcohol and then sexually assaulted her.

According to court documents, the assault of the fifteen-year-old victim occurred while Sampson was awaiting trial in Massachusetts state court on two counts of statutory rape of a child in an unrelated matter. In that case, on January 10, 2008, a jury found Sampson guilty of one count of statutory rape. He was sentenced in February 2008 to serve not less than four and not more than seven years' imprisonment in Massachusetts state prison as a result of this conviction.

Additionally, based on the December 29, 2007, assault of his dance studio student, Sampson was indicted and charged in Massachusetts state court with rape of a child with force and providing liquor to a person under 21. He pleaded guilty to the charges on November 14, 2011, and was sentenced to not less than two-and-a-half and not more than three years' imprisonment, to be served consecutively to the sentence he received as a result of his January 2008 conviction.

In total, Sampson served approximately seven years in prison in Massachusetts. Upon his release from Massachusetts state prison, Sampson was placed in federal custody and brought to Rhode Island to face charges in U.S. District Court in Providence brought as a result of the December 2007 assault.

Sampson is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge William E. Smith on January 29, 2016.

The case is being prosecuted in federal court in Providence by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard W. Rose and Zachary A. Cunha.

The matter was investigated by the FBI, with the assistance of the Warwick, Rhode Island, and Easton, Massachusetts, Police Departments.

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Contact:

Jim Martin (401) 709-5357

email: USARI.Media@usdoj.gov

on Twitter @USAO_RI

Updated November 10, 2015

Attachment
Topic
Project Safe Childhood
Press Release Number: 15-103