Thursday, Jan. 6, 2005 | 11:05 a.m.
A former federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent who passed notes to boys at area Wal-Marts and Kmarts offering them money in exchange for sex will not serve any more prison time than the five years he is currently spending in federal prison.
District Judge Joe Bonaventure followed the recommendation of Chief Deputy District Attorney Eric Jorgenson in sentencing Steven Kinney, 43, to prison time concurrent with the five-year prison sentence he received from U.S. District Judge Lloyd George in July 2003.
Kinney pleaded guilty to one gross misdemeanor count of solicitation of minor to engage in acts constituting infamous crime against nature and 14 felony counts of the same charge. The boys he solicited were between the ages of 11 and 13.
Although Bonaventure followed the recommendation of running Kinney's District Court sentence concurrent to his federal prison term, he said he was baffled by the Department of Parole and Probation's very lenient recommendation that Kinney be put on probation for his crimes.
"The Department of Parole and Probation recommends probation even though he (Kinney) is serving 57 months in the federal system," Bonaventure said.
The department deemed Kinney to be "a low risk to offend," despite the fact that after his arrest in Clark County he was arrested on similar charges in Vicksburg, Miss.
Kinney was originally sentenced to serve three years in prison on his federal charges but after his May 2003 arrest in Mississippi for allegedly trying to pay three boys at Wal-Mart to let him perform a sex act, an extra 21 months were added.
"Mr. Kinney was a good citizen at one time, but I don't know what happened to him as these are some very, very serious charges," Bonaventure said Wednesday.
Bonaventure essentially dismissed the gross misdemeanor by giving Kinney credit for time served, and gave him two consecutive sentences of 12 to 30 months for two of the felony counts and ran the remaining 12 counts concurrent.
All of the time, however, will run concurrent to Kinney's federal prison term he is serving for coercion and enticement of a minor for sex. The federal charges stemmed from the fact that one of Kinney's notes to an intended victim in Clark County included an e-mail address.
As part of the District Court sentence, Kinney will have to register as a sex offender upon release and is required to be supervised by authorities for the rest of his life, something he didn't face as a result of his federal charges. Under his federal charges Kinney was only required to be supervised for three years.
Kinney also is prohibited from spending time with children under 18 unless accompanied by an approved adult.
Kinney on Wednesday said he would "like to apologize to everyone" for what he has done and told Bonaventure he "will never be back in your court again."
Jorgenson said securing lifetime supervision as part of Kinney's sentence was important especially since Kinney has children.
"I'm glad they sent him (Kinney) to prison," Jorgenson said. "I feel the sentence is appropriate under the circumstances."
Jorgenson said records at the DEA show no indication of any misconduct by Kinney during his roughly 12 years as an agent. Kinney was fired from the DEA after his arrest.
Kinney will continue to serve his time at a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas.
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