BOISE - Kenton Lloyd Flook, 45, of Boise, Idaho, was sentenced today in United States District Court to 84 months in prison followed by seven years of supervised release, for two counts of transfer of obscene materials to a minor, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. Senior U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge also ordered Flook to forfeit computers and related property used in the commission of the offenses. Flook pleaded guilty to the charges on July 30, 2015.
According to the plea agreement, in March of 2014, an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Erie, Pennsylvania, and a detective with the Erie, Pennsylvania, Police Department, received information from the mother of a 13-year-old child in Erie that her daughter had engaged in sexually explicit activity with an adult male via the internet. An investigation of the victim's iPod revealed multiple sexually explicit images of the victim and an adult male who represented himself as "Kevin Atton." The investigation also revealed chats between the victim and "Atton" using online chat websites "Omegle" and "KiK," and live video chats using "Skype."
Beginning on February 14, 2014, the chats became sexually explicit in nature, and progressed to the commission of live sex acts and exchanges of sexually explicit photos of one another via the internet. The exchange of sexually explicit photos included sexually explicit photos of the adult male on March 2nd and 3rd, 2014. The victim reported that she told "Atton" that she was 14 years old. "Atton" represented himself as a 21-year-old baseball player and college student at UNLV in Las Vegas, Nevada. The investigation later revealed "Atton" to be Kenton Lloyd Flook, age 44, living in Boise, Idaho.
On July 28, 2014, FBI agents in Idaho served a federal search warrant for Flook's residence in Boise, where they seized an iPad used in the chats. FBI agents in Las Vegas, Nevada located Flook on that same date while he was on a business trip. During an interview with FBI agents, Flook admitted repeatedly communicating with the victim online, that the conversations were sexual in nature, that he engaged in live sexual acts over the internet with the victim, and that he had exchanged sexually explicit images with the victim.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Utah, as well as the Erie, Pennsylvania Police Department, and was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”