Kansas City Man Sentenced to Federal Prison on Sexual Predator Charge
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 14, 2009 |
KANSAS CITY, KS—Timothy Kessler, 42, Kansas City, Kan., has been sentenced to 97 months in federal prison for transporting a minor across state lines to engage in sexual activity, U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch said today.
In September 2008, Kessler pleaded guilty. In his plea he admitted he used a website to make contact with teenage boys for sex. The FBI began investigating in June 2003 when agents were contacted by the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department with information that Kessler had persuaded a minor boy from Blue Springs, Mo., to have sex with another man. Kessler had first contacted the minor in the website’s chat room. Kessler told the boy he was a photographer and he could help the boy get started in a modeling career.
FBI investigators also discovered that in February 2003 Kessler had driven from Kansas City, Kan., to Springfield, Mo., to pick up a 15-year-old boy he met through the same website. In that case, too, Kessler had told the boy he could help him start a career in modeling. Kessler took pictures of the boy engaged in sexual activity.
Welch commended the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department, the FBI and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Martin for their work on the case. This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice initiative to protect children from sexual exploitation.