DEA agent’s wife implicated him in sex case, report says

Keith Paul

Friday, March 15, 2002 | 10:56 a.m.

The wife of a DEA agent accused of soliciting teenage boys for sex turned her husband in after tracking his computer use, a police report says.

When Metro Police's sexual assault office called Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Steven Kinney in for an interview last year, his wife, Ruth, became suspicious, police say.

Steven Kinney was never charged in that case, but his suspicious wife gathered information she believed linked her husband to soliciting a teenage boy for sex and turned him in to the FBI last week, according to a police arrest report.

"The FBI had information that led them to believe that (Kinney) had been contacting young males through the Internet and attempting to entice them into meeting him and having oral sex for money," the report states. "The FBI gained their knowledge of this through Kinney's wife."

After his interview with Metro detectives last year, Ruth Kinney installed a program in the couple's computer to capture key strokes and, through the program, tracked web locations "where Steven was talking to a 15-year-old male asking him for sex," the report states.

On March 5, the FBI and Metro searched Kinneys' home, and on Tuesday police arrested Kinney charging him with 36 counts of sex crimes, including nine counts of attempted sexual assault.

Kinney, 42, was booked into the Clark County jail Tuesday and released on bond Wednesday.

On March 7, the DEA suspended Kinney with pay. He has been an agent since 1992 and a narcotics investigator while assigned to the Las Vegas office, said Special Agent Will Glaspy, a spokesman at DEA headquarters in Washington.

Metro's charges stem from allegations that Kinney wrapped notes around small rocks offering sex for money. He is accused of tossing the notes at or near the boys at area department stores.

Ruth Kinney going to the FBI sped up the process that led to her husband's arrest, said Lt. Jeff Carlson of Metro's sexual assault unit.

"Anytime we can speed up the process and save any potential victims it's good," Carlson said.

While spouses do not always go to police when they suspect their partner of a crime, it does happen, said Sgt. Christopher Darcy, a Metro Police spokesman.

"Sometimes they are afraid if they are in an abusive situation," he said. "I wouldn't say spouses come forward everyday, but it does happen."

But when children are the alleged victims, Darcy said, "spouses are more apt to come forward."

On Tuesday, before he was arrested, an attorney for Kinney filed papers in Family Court seeking a divorce from Ruth Kinney and asked for custody of their two young children.

The divorce papers state the couple is "incompatible in their tastes, natures, views, likes ... and are now incompatible to such an extent that it is impossible for them to live together as husband and wife."

Ruth Kinney, who is a civilian DEA employee, gave the DEA and FBI a screen name her husband allegedly used, "red shirt 2002," the report says. The FBI works with Metro on Internet crimes against children, and police found that Kinney's screen name/ e-mail address was similar to one on a note soliciting sex given to a boy, the report states. The e-mail address on the note was "red shirt Vegas 2002."

"The investigation started with the FBI, but at some point we found the e-mail address was similar to one used in connection with our case," Carlson said.

In February two brothers, 14 and 11, said they heard something drop on the ground and found a note that offered money for sex and read in part, "You're hot. Do you want to make $20. I'm cool/safe. If you want to do it, meet me at the soda machines."

The boys were then approached by a man who asked if they wanted to do what was on the note. The report states that the boys ran to their mother, who called police, but the suspect had left.

On Saturday, a photo lineup was shown to one of the boys who "without hesitation" chose Kinney's picture, the report states.

On March 7 Ruth Kinney called police saying she found some old clothes in the garage. A note was found in Steven Kinney's old shorts that was similar to other notes, the report states.

Police have not found a boy who received one of the notes and engaged in sex with a man, said Metro Sgt. Tom Keller, head of the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit.

Keller said the number of reports were piling up and detectives would have caught up with Kinney eventually.

"We were finger-printing the letters," he said. "We would have gotten to him."