William Edward Stevens, Jr. - Internet Predator

William Edward Stevens, Jr., 52, of Melbourne, Florida, was sentenced in Coeur d’Alene Monday afternoon to 72 months in federal prison for Use of Interstate Facilities to Transmit Information About a Minor, and Conspiracy to Use a Minor to Distribute a Controlled Substance.

U.S. Attorney Tom Moss announced the sentence in a news release Monday afternoon.

This prosecution arose after Moscow Police and the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force conducted an investigation showing that for approximately three years, Stevens had communicated from his Florida home with a teenage girl from Moscow and engaged in inappropriate sexual activity with her over the Internet.

The girl was between the ages of 12 and 15 years of age and was being home schooled. The investigation showed that Stevens met the victim in an online chat room and misrepresented himself to the minor victim as a law enforcement officer, which he is not. Stevens also misrepresented himself as being younger than he is, and sent the minor victim photos of his 21-year-old son, and claimed they were of him.

The chats included dialogue and behavior that was explicitly sexual in nature. The drug charge came as a result of Stevens encouraging the victim to secretly give her mother Ambien, a prescription sleeping medication, so he and the teenager could have time together to engage in online sexual activity and sex talk.