Former DEA agent pleads guilty

Jace Radke

Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003 | 11:16 a.m.

A former Drug Enforcement Administration agent has pleaded guilty to 15 counts of solicitation of a minor to engage in sex in exchange for the possibility of serving less time in prison.

Steven Lynn Kinney made his plea Wednesday to District Judge Joseph Bonaventure in connection with charges that allege Kinney wrapped notes offering sex for money around pebbles and tossed them near boys.

Kinney was originally facing 66 counts of solicitation, lewdness, seduction and attempted sexual assault, all with a minor. Fourteen of the solicitation counts that Kinney plead to are felonies and the 15th is a misdemeanor.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Eric Jorgenson said the plea agreement calls for him not to argue for more than 12 years of prison time for Kinney during sentencing. Each solicitation count carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison.

Kinney's attorney, David Chesnoff, said he hopes that his client will get less prison time.

"We're hoping that it turns out to be about three years," Chesnoff said.

Kinney, a DEA agent since 1992, was a firearms instructor for the DEA along with being a narcotics investigator in Las Vegas.