DEA agent’s wife pointed finger at husband in sex case

Keith Paul

Friday, March 15, 2002 | 9:40 a.m.

A local DEA agent arrested this week accused of soliciting teenage boys for sex was investigated on similar allegations a year ago, but no charges were ever filed.

But when Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Steven Kinney was called into Metro Police's sexual assault office for an interview last year his wife became suspicious. She ultimately found 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."

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.

The screen name he used was "red shirt 2002," which was part of the information Ruth Kinney, a civilian DEA employee, took to the DEA and FBI. 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 given to a boy soliciting oral sex, 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," said Lt. Jeff Carlson of Metro's sexual assault unit.

The FBI and Metro on March 5 searched Kinney's home. Kinney was arrested Tuesday and charged 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 Tuesday, shortly 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."

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.

In February two brothers, 14 and 11, said they heard something drop on the ground and found a note that read, "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 report stated.

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

Police found several other reports that stated boys were propositioned through notes dropped or tossed near them.

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 consistent with 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.

"I find it hard to believe that (a suspect) would keep doing the same thing if it hadn't worked," he said.

Keller said the number of reports were piling up and detectives would have caught up with Kinney even if his wife had not turned him in.

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