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According to court documents, Buckeye Union High School Principal Joseph Kinney was arrested on suspicion of seducing a minor for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
The Buckeye Union High School District issued a press release Tuesday saying Kinney was placed on leave after becoming the subject of an investigation unrelated to the school or district.
According to court documents, an FBI task force that investigates internet crimes involving children began investigating Kinney on July 22, when an undercover agent posing as a 12-year-old girl on the anonymous social media app Whisper received a response from a user named “Macabre Pure” after she posted about how bored she was and asked what she should do.
The documents state that the user suggested the girl take off her clothes and that he didn’t care about her age because the agent said she was only 12. The records state that the agent sent Kinney a photo of a clothed, age-reduced photo of a young girl, to which Kinney responded with two full-body photos of herself in clothes.
According to the documents, Kinney and the undercover agent continued their conversation, with the agent saying she was in Oregon visiting her grandmother and was bored. According to the documents, Kinney responded that he would like to “save” her and perform various sexual acts on her. Kinney asked the agent, who was posing as the girl, to also send him nude photos of herself, to which the agent said she did not send such photos, but sent another photo showing a young girl in clothing.
According to the records, the conversation continued on July 23, when Kinney told the agent he was at work. The conversation ended when the agent asked him if he had a fun job.
According to the documents, police obtained a subpoena for Whisper to provide subscriber information for the Macabre Pure account and provided IP addresses linked to Cox Communications and Verizon accounts registered to Kinney. On an undisclosed date, FBI agents executed a search warrant at Kinney’s Goodyear home.
According to the documents, Kinney was stopped and arrested by police around 7:18 a.m. Tuesday west of Elliot and San Miguel streets in Goodyear. Police seized Kinney’s phone and a forensic analysis revealed that the Whisper app had been installed but deleted.
According to the records, police took Kinney to his home and questioned him in a Phoenix Police Department cruiser parked outside the home. Kinney told police he used Whisper on his phone and liked that it “seemed like fantasy and was anonymous.”
The documents state that Kinney said he spoke to several girls on Whisper who told him they were underage, but he assumed they were all adults and were role-playing. Kinney recalled speaking to one girl who claimed she was nine years old, but he believed she was an adult because the picture she sent him looked older than a girl of that age, the documents state.
Kinney also recalled sexualized conversations with a girl who claimed to be 12 years old, but reiterated that he thought she was an adult and that it was merely “role play and fantasy chat,” the documents say.
The filing states that Kinney told authorities he was not sexually attracted to children, nor would he sexually abuse a child. The documents state that Kinney told police he felt stupid and ashamed of his actions.
Kinney was booked into jail on a charge of luring a minor for sexual exploitation, a Class 3 felony, and held on $60,000 bail. His next court date is Sept. 10 in Maricopa County Superior Court.
The Buckeye district said in its press release, “Because this is a personnel matter, we cannot provide further details at this time. Our focus is on providing our students with access to an excellent educational experience.”
In accordance with school district policy, Kinney was placed on leave. Kristin Koke, an assistant principal, was named interim principal of the high school.
