Former Lansing Police Officer, School Board Member Indicted for Attempted Sex with a Minor

KANSAS CITY, MO—Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former Lansing, Kansas, police officer and school board member was indicted by a federal grand jury today for attempting to entice a minor for illicit sex.

William Brian Duncan, 40, of Leavenworth, Kan., was charged in a two-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Missouri. Today’s indictment replaces a federal criminal complaint that was filed against Duncan on Dec. 30, 2010, and includes an additional charge related to traveling across the state line. Duncan remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2010.

Today’s indictment charges Duncan with using the Internet to attempt to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity, and with crossing the state line to attempt to engage in a sexual act with a minor.

Duncan was an officer with the Lansing, Kansas, Police Department until November 2010. He had been a DARE officer and coordinator of the Safe Kids program and was named Officer of the Year in 2008. Duncan resigned from the Lansing School Board in November 2010.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, Duncan communicated online with a person he believed to be 14 years old. In reality, Duncan was communicating with an undercover law enforcement officer. Duncan allegedly corresponded with the undercover officer on multiple occasions in December 2010; many of the conversations were sexual in nature.

During an online chat on Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010, the affidavit says, Duncan began making arrangements to meet in person. Duncan allegedly drove from his residence in Kansas to the meeting location in Missouri the next day. When Duncan approached the location, he was pulled over by a Kansas City, Mo., police officer and arrested.

Phillips cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore. It was investigated by the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force.

Project Safe Childhood

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.