Henderson man linked to Internet child sex sting gets judge to drop charge

A Henderson computer technician acting as his own attorney has persuaded a federal judge to dismiss an indictment charging him with coercing a teenager into having sex.

Kenneth Wescott, 53, a married grandfather, filed a motion in April to dismiss the single coercion and enticement count, arguing it failed to explain what kind of sexual activity had occurred and specify what law may have been broken.

The March 2014 indictment alleged only that Wescott tried to get a teenager to “engage in sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense under federal, state and local law.”

Wescott, who has been in custody since his January 2014 arrest, said he had no way of defending himself against an indictment that provided no factual allegations.

On May 28, U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon agreed, and dismissed the charge based on a recommendation from U.S. Magistrate Judge Bill Hoffman.

But Wescott’s legal victory — rare for a non-attorney defendant representing himself — may be short-lived. Gordon said in his decision that the government could seek a new, more clearly defined indictment, and federal prosecutors said they intended to do just that.

Gordon stayed the dismissal for two weeks to give prosecutors time to obtain the new indictment. Wescott, who could not be reached for comment, remains in custody.

Wescott was one of a number of defendants charged in federal and state court last year following undercover stings set up by detectives assigned to a FBI-led task force to combat sexual exploitation of children.

At least three other defendants charged between March and May of last year with violating the same coercion statute are waiting to stand trial. None have challenged the lack of factual allegations in their indictments, though lawyers for one defendant have accused the government of entrapping their client and manufacturing coercion and child pornography crimes against him.

In Wescott’s case, a Henderson detective posing as a 13-year-old girl answered an Internet ad Wescott placed on Craigslist looking for sex with women. After sexually explicit email conversations with the detective in late December 2013 and early January 2014, Wescott was arrested in a shopping center parking lot where he thought he was about to meet the 13-year-old, according to court documents.

At the time, Wescott was sharing a Henderson apartment with his wife and had lost his technician’s job at a cellular company. He was living off a severance package.

Defense lawyer Chris Rasmussen, who was appointed as Wescott’s stand-by counsel, said Gordon’s dismissal ruling is rare.

“Nobody’s ever challenged this before,” He said. “It’s a high threshold to establish that there’s not enough information in an indictment for a defendant to understand what he’s charged with.”

Longtime Las Vegas criminal defense attorney Thomas Pitaro, who is not involved in this case, described Wescott’s effort to get his case dismissed as a “one in a million jackpot.

“For a person representing himself to accomplish what he did is highly unusual,” Pitaro said. “These kinds of legal pleadings are very, very technical.”

Earlier this year, Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden and other top law enforcement officials held a news conference to tout a major sweep of child predators that resulted in more than 200 arrests.

Federal court records show that prosecutors have been using the same coercion charge and indictment language with much success for more than a decade. Most of the cases have led to convictions and lengthy prison terms. Often, the defendants faced additional child pornography charges.

Bogden said prosecutors don’t know how many coercion cases similar to Wescott’s are active, and they don’t plan to seek new indictments in any other cases in light of Gordon’s decision.

He said his office has successfully prosecuted more than 400 people for child exploitation crimes in Nevada in the past five years. One child predator was sentenced to life in prison last week.

“These cases are referred to our office for federal prosecution through the southern and northern child exploitation task forces and Project Safe Childhood Program and are investigated by federal, state and local law enforcement authorities,” Bogden said. “Due to the excellent work of these investigators, we have removed hundreds of these predators from Nevada, some permanently.”

In his ruling in Wescott’s case, Gordon said Hoffman correctly assessed the factual flaws in the indictment.

Hoffman pointed out that the indictment covered a “multitude of crimes” and unfairly inhibited Wescott from mounting a defense.

“Since the indictment does not allege, either by citation or sufficient factual allegations, defendant’s criminal sexual activity or which criminal law was violated, the indictment is deficient,” Hoffman wrote.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Allison Herr, who prosecuted the Wescott case, defended the level of detail in the indictment in court papers objecting to Hoffman’s recommendation.

“The United States has provided the defendant with extensive discovery, including a copy of all the emails and text messages between (the) defendant and the undercover agent,” she wrote. “Accordingly, the government has provided (the) defendant more than sufficient information to allow him to know with what he is charged and to prepare an adequate defense to the charge.”

Gordon, however, said an indictment “must do more than just provide a date range and quote a statute.”

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Find him on Twitter: @JGermanRJ