May 18, 2015

Oregon Man Pleads Guilty to Traveling to Missouri to Engage in Illicit Sex

KANSAS CITY, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a LaGrande, Ore., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to traveling across states lines to Missouri to engage in illicit sexual activity with two minors, whom he believed were the daughters of an undercover law enforcement officer.

Abdul Lamont Gamble, 40, of LaGrande, Ore., pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays to the charge contained in an April 30, 2014, federal indictment.

By pleading guilty today, Gamble admitted that he traveled from Oregon to Missouri between March 25 and April 9, 2014, to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and a commercial sex act with a minor.

Gamble contacted an undercover law enforcement officer through an online social media site in October 2013 and offered to have sex with her fictitious 12-year-old and 15-year-old daughters. Gamble engaged in numerous conversations with the undercover detective through late 2013 and early 2014 via this social media site, e-mail and text messages. Gamble described the specific sexual acts he intended on performing with and on the two minor females, for which he agreed to pay $250.

Gamble traveled to Kansas City, Mo., on a Greyhound bus and arrived on April 9, 2014. The undercover officer met him at the bus station. Gamble reconfirmed the sexual acts he intended on performing on and with the two minor girls.

Gamble and the undercover officer stopped at a CVS on Independence Avenue. Police officers arrested Gamble when he exited the car and began to approach the CVS.

Under federal statutes, Gamble is subject to a sentence of up to 30 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick D. Daly. It was investigated by the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department and the FBI.

Project Safe Childhood

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the 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. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”