On December 17, Kenneth Lesser, 50, of East Stroudsburg, was sentenced to ten years in federal prison and five years of supervised release for attempted online enticement of a minor. . This sentence follows Lesser’s guilty plea on September 25.
On September 14, 2023, Lesser was indicted by a grand jury on charges for attempted online enticement and attempted production of child pornography. According to investigators, between July 17, 2023 and August 3, 2023, Lesser communicated with an undercover agent who he believed to be a 13-year-old. Lesser reportedly expressed interest in engaging in sexual relations with the minor and attempted to meet her in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. He also sent explicit photos to the undercover agent and requested explicit photos from who he believed to be the thirteen-year-old girl.
In the government’s sentencing memo, the prosecutor wrote that the nature of Lesser’s offense is “deeply troubling” because the crimes “inherently involve violence against children.” The government further wrote: “Although the defense may argue that there was no ‘real’ victim in this case, in the defendant’s mind there was… [I]t was his attraction to a 13-year-old child that was the impetus for his offense conduct and he pursued his deviant interest by taking to the Internet to actively conspire with a purported foster parent trafficking her child for sex.”
We completely agree. The CSE Institute commends the efforts of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the Homeland Security Investigations Allentown Office for their diligent work on this case and prosecuting these horrific crimes against children.
However, in cases such as this, we encourage the use of the federal sex trafficking statute in addition to the current charges. Under federal law, a person is guilty of trafficking if they recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, advertise, maintain, patronize, or solicit a person for a commercial sex act. To be guilty of sex trafficking of a child, the prosecution must only prove that the defendants engaged in soliciting, enticing, harboring, obtaining, patronizing, or transporting a minor who is or will be subject to sexual servitude. Because the victim is a minor, the Government does not need to prove the defendant knew or recklessly disregarded the victim’s age, nor does the Government have to prove that anything of value was exchanged for the sex act. Under both federal and state law, any commercial sexual exploitation of minors constitutes sex trafficking because children cannot consent to be bought or sold for sex.
Here, when Lesser attempted to solicit sex from who he believed was a 13-year-old, he satisfied the elements of trafficking in individuals. We encourage law enforcement and prosecutors to make use of all appropriate charges in cases such as these.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice-launched initiative that aims to combat the commercial sexual exploitation and abuse of children nationwide. Project Safe Childhood was initiated in May of 2006 by the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice identifies the five essential components of Project Safe Childhood as building partnerships; coordinating law enforcement; training Project Safe Childhood partners; public awareness; and accountability. Through the initiative, the Department of Justice aims to coordinate and cooperate with federal, tribal, state, local, and international organizations to prevent the sexual exploitation of children.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.