Man Sentenced to Seven-Year Prison Term for Traveling to District of Columbia to Have Sex with Under-Aged Child

WASHINGTON—Kenneth Michael Drew, 42, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to a seven-year prison term for traveling interstate to engage in illicit sexual conduct, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr.; James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; and Cathy L. Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

Drew pled guilty to the charge in February 2012. He was sentenced by the Honorable Robert L. Wilkins in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. Upon completion of his prison term, Drew will be placed on 10 years of supervised release. In addition, Drew must register as a sex offender for a period of 15 years.

According to a factual proffer of evidence presented as part of the court proceedings, the defendant represented himself on Facebook as a 19-year-old in November 2011 when he met the victim, a 14-year-old girl from Washington, D.C. During the month-long chat on Facebook, the minor gave Drew her name, address, name of school, and other identifying information. Drew told the girl that he wanted to come to her house to have sex with her. When he showed up, the girl refused to have sex with him. Thereafter, the defendant threatened the minor that he was going to distribute naked pictures of her to her school and family if she didn’t let him have sex with her. After weeks of repeated contacts via Facebook, phone calls and in-person visits to her school and home, the victim told her mother everything that happened. Her mother alerted the police, and Drew subsequently was arrested in December 2011.

Drew later admitted to communicating with the minor on Facebook and to traveling from Maryland to the minor’s residence for the purpose of having sexual contact with her.

This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative and investigated by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and MPD.

Project Safe Childhood is 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 U.S. 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, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen, Assistant Director McJunkin, and Chief Lanier praised the MPD detectives and special agents of the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force. They also commended the efforts of those who worked on the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Criminal Investigator John Marsh, Victim/Witness Advocate Veronica Vaughan, and Legal Assistant Charmonique Price. Finally, they praised the efforts of Assistant U.S. Attorney Julieanne Himelstein, who prosecuted the case.