Edmonson Teacher Charged With Federal Child Porn Crimes After Undercover Operation

William O. Lindsey No Longer Employed By School District

William O. Lindsey, 28, Brownsville.

Darren Doyle, story:
An Edmonson County High School Teacher has been arrested and charged with attempted production of child pornography and attempted online enticement, announced United States Attorney Russell Coleman.

“The United States Attorney’s Office and the Kentucky Attorney General stand united in protecting our kids,” said U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman. “We will not permit predators to use the guise of some of our most trusted and respected fellow citizens, its teachers, to exploit our young people.”

“Child perpetrators are becoming increasingly clever in the methods they use to entice and exploit children, and our Department of Criminal Investigations is focused on devoting resources to tracking these perpetrators online and stopping them before they can carry out crimes against a child,” said Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.  “Our office worked closely on this investigation with U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman, U.S. Secret Service, Kentucky State Police, Edmonson County Sheriff’s Office, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, and Louisville Metro Police Department, and I appreciate their partnership.”

William Oneal Lindsey, 28, of Brownsville, Kentucky, was charged on January 13, 2021, by criminal complaint and arrested at Edmonson County High School.

​According to the criminal complaint, on January 7, 2021, the defendant began an online conversation that was sexual in nature with what he believed to be a minor. In fact, Lindsey was talking with an undercover officer with the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General’s Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

After several days of conversations, Lindsey was taken into custody at his place of employment, Edmonson County High School without incident. According to the complaint, Lindsey waived Miranda and agreed to be interviewed.  During the interview, he admitted the person he met online he knew to be a minor and that the conversation was sexual in nature and he asked for images. He offered that he should not have engaged in the behavior because of the age of the person he was talking to, and went on to say that he had communicated with numerous other girls on various platforms concerning sexually explicit topics and that he believed many of them were minors.

The statutory maximum penalty for attempted enticement is no less than 10 years and no more than life; attempted production carries a sentence of no less than 15 years, and no more than life.

Both counts carry a fine of $250,000, and no less than 5 years and no more than life of Supervised Release per count.
 
Lindsey was employed at Edmonson County High School as the Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG) teacher. Edmonson County Superintendent of Schools Brian Alexander confirmed to the Edmonson Voice today that Lindsey was no longer employed by the Edmonson County School District. 

Assistant United States Attorney Jo Lawless is prosecuting the case. The Office of the Kentucky Attorney General, Department of Criminal Investigations conducted the investigation with assistance from the United States Secret Service, Kentucky State Police, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, and Edmonson County Sheriff’s Office.