Buckeye high school principal accused of luring | Crime Files

BUCKEYE, Ariz. - UPDATE: The Maricopa County Attorney's Office said on Sept. 9 it wouldn't be moving forward with prosecuting Kinney due to no likelihood of conviction.

Court documents we obtained show the criminal offenses a West Valley high school principal is accused of committing.

On Sept. 3, we reported that the principal was placed on administrative leave until further notice, due to what school district officials described as a "law enforcement investigation for a personal matter unrelated to his work with the school or district."

On Sept. 9, the school board voted unanimously to fire him.

Now, we have a better picture of the accusations that are being leveled against the suspect.

Who's the suspect?

Joseph Kinney

Court documents identified the suspect as 42-year-old Joseph L. Kinney.

Per our previous report, Kinney is the principal of Buckeye Union High School. As of Sept. 4, the website still lists him as the school's principal, but officials with the Buckeye Union High School District announced on Sept. 3 that the school's current Assistant Principal of Academics, Kristin Koke, will assume the duties of principal.

What happened?

Per court documents, the case began as an FBI investigation that was later transferred to the Phoenix Police Department.

Investigators say an investigation into the matter began on July 22, when an undercover law enforcement agent in Oregon was posing as a 12-year-old girl on a social media app called Whisper, described as "an anonymous social media application that allows users to make posts, aka whispers, on the application, and exchange messages with other users."

"The undercover agent posted on Whisper ‘bored lol what should I do,’" read a portion of the court documents.

The agent, officials say, later received a response from a user that they identified as Kinney, asking the user to "get cozy in her bed" and undress herself. The agent, in the persona of the teenage girl, then tells Kinney that she is just 12 years old, and that the request was weird. Kinney responded by saying "I don't mind your age."

Other parts of the conversation between Kinney and the undercover agent, as listed in court documents, included conversations related to sexual matters. Subsequent investigations ultimately linked the Whisper account to Kinney.

On Sept. 3, the FBI served a search warrant on Kinney's home in Goodyear, and on the same day, Kinney was pulled over during a traffic stop. Investigators say a subsequent forensic analysis of Kinney's iPhone revealed that the Whisper app was deleted by the time Kinney was pulled over.

Investigators say after Kinney was read his Miranda rights, he admitted that he used Whisper on his phone, and admitted to talking to "multiple females on Whisper that claimed to be underage."

"[Kinney] said he never actually believed they were underage and assumed they were all adults and just engaged in fantasy chat and role playing," investigators wrote. "[Kinney] recalled one female telling him she was nine years old, but her photo didn't look like a nine-year-old, so he assumed she was an adult."

Kinney, per the documents, later said he feels "stupid and embarrassed for his decisions," and said he would "never engage in sexual acts with a child."

What are they accusing the suspect of?

Court documents state that Kinney is accused of a count of luring a minor for sexual exploitation (A.R.S. 13-3554).

A judge has set a $60,000 bond for Kinney. Should he make bond, he will have to undergo electronic monitoring. He will also be banned from having any contact with minors or accessing the internet, without exceptions.

Meanwhile, a preliminary hearing for Kinney is scheduled for Sept. 12.