Dance Instructor Sentenced for Traveling Interstate to Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Keith Sampson, 37, of South Easton, Mass., a former dance instructor in Rhode Island, was sentenced today to 60 months in federal prison for traveling interstate to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a 15-year-old female he instructed at a Rhode Island dance studio. Sampson recently completed a seven-and-one-half year state prison term in Massachusetts in this and other criminal matters.

At sentencing, U.S. District Court Chief Judge William E. Smith also ordered Sampson to serve 10 years supervised release upon completion of his federal prison term, during which time he will be prohibited from being in the company without supervision of anyone under the age of 18. Additionally, Sampson must register as a sex offender.

Sampson pleaded guilty on November 10, 2015, to traveling interstate to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

Sampson’s federal sentence is announced by United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha and Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Field Office of the FBI.

At the time of his guilty plea in federal court, Sampson admitted to the court that on December 29, 2007, the 15-year-old victim had been left in his care by her mother, on the pretense that the teenager would be spending the night at Sampson's Providence residence in the company of his wife and child. Instead, Sampson admitted 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 and information presented to the court, the assault occurred while Sampson was awaiting trial in Massachusetts state court in an unrelated matter on two counts of statutory rape of a child. In that case, on January 10, 2008, a jury convicted Sampson of one count of statutory rape. He was sentenced to serve not less than four and not more than seven years imprisonment in Massachusetts state prison.

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 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 consecutive to the sentence he received as a result of his January 2008 conviction.

This case was prosecuted in federal court by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Zachary A. Cunha and Richard W. Rose.

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

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