Fayette County Woman Sentenced to Prison for Child Sex Trafficking

 

For Immediate Release

U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of West Virginia

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Kristen Naylor-Legg, 30, of Gauley Bridge, was sentenced today to nine years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, for conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of a minor under the age of 18. Naylor-Legg must also register as a sex offender.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on two separate occasions in June 2020, Naylor-Legg provided her 17-year-old female relative to Larry Allen Clay Jr., so he could engage in sexual intercourse with the minor. At the time, Clay was an employee of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department and the Chief of Police for the Gauley Bridge Police Department. Naylor-Legg admitted that on the first occasion she was paid $100 by Clay. On the second occasion, Naylor-Legg indicated that Clay had agreed to pay her $50 in exchange for sexual intercourse with the minor but ultimately did not give her the money.

After four days of trial, a federal jury convicted Clay, 57, of Fayetteville, of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of a minor via coercion, sex trafficking of a minor via coercion, and two counts of obstruction of justice. Evidence at trial proved that Clay twice arranged with Naylor-Legg to have sexual intercourse with the minor, sought to persuade Naylor-Legg to lie to law enforcement about the incidents, and also asked a law enforcement officer if his criminal conduct could be covered up.

United States Attorney Will Thompson made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the West Virginia State Police and the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department.

United States District Judge Joseph Robert Goodwin imposed the sentence. Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer Rada Herrald and Monica D. Coleman prosecuted the case.

Members of the public are urged to report suspected instances of child sex trafficking through a toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE (1-866-347-2423) or online at www.ice.gov/tip.

This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative of the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACE by searching for Case No. 2:21-cr-62.

Priest charged with sexually abusing Filipino boys

HSI urges potential victims to come forward.

CINCINNATI – An American priest from Cincinnati has been charged by a federal criminal complaint for allegedly sexually abusing minor boys.  The charges follow an international investigation that spanned two continents by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and authorities in the Philippines.

Kenneth B. Hendricks, 77, of Cincinnati, was arrested by Manila-based HSI special agents alongside Filipino  authorities Tuesday evening in the Philippines, where he currently serves as a missionary priest.

Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Steve Francis, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), announced the charges. 

The government unsealed the criminal complaint today. According to that document and its supporting affidavit, on November 13, HSI received information regarding alleged sexual exploitation of multiple minor Filipino boys. 

Information indicated that a Catholic priest – later identified as Father Hendricks – had been sexually assaulting the boys. Subsequently, several victims have been identified and provided statements to law enforcement.

For example, one victim said he had been sexually abused by the local parish priest since 2009, when the boy was approximately 12 years old. Another victim stated he was sexually abused by Hendricks beginning when the victim was seven years old.

One victim said he and Hendricks engaged in anal sex at least a dozen times and oral sex more than 30 times. Further, Hendricks allegedly inserted a hose and his fingers into the boy’s anus. 

Another victim said he masturbated Hendricks’s penis approximately 40 times and that Hendricks did the same to the boy at least 60 times.

Victims said Hendricks began by kissing them and the contact escalated to touching their penises, oral and anal sex.

Hendricks allegedly had a number of minor boys residing with him. It is alleged he insisted they take baths together, and would molest the victims alone or with other boys. The priest allegedly warned the victims that if they told anyone they would all go to prison.

In a recorded conversation with one of the victims, Hendrick stated: “This will probably be the scenario is, there will be a meeting and then it will be decided, you know, what your parents want to do about anything. Do they want to try…want to press charges, uh, whatever see, but that’s between them and the Bishop, I have nothing to do with that. I just get the fallout afterwards.”

In the same conversation, Hendricks said: “they will decide, ask you what your decision is, what you’re going to do, whether there will be a case or not or whether, you know, a settlement, I don’t know. But as far as after that, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I really will have to probably really resign, retire now.”

Hendricks is charged as a United States citizen with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, which is a federal crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison. 

U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the investigation of this case by HSI and the Assistance of the Philippines National Police, as well as Assistant United States Attorneys Christy L. Muncy and Timothy D. Oakley, who are prosecuting the case.

A criminal complaint merely contains allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

If you have information related to this alleged conduct, or believe you are also a victim, please contact HSI at 513-246-1461.

USDOJ: Vermont Man Charged with Obtaining U.S. Citizenship by Failing to Disclose Violent Crimes Committed During the Bosnian Conflict

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, July 26, 2013

Vermont Man Charged with Obtaining U.S. Citizenship by Failing to Disclose Violent Crimes Committed During the Bosnian Conflict

Edin Sakoè, 54, of Burlington, Vt., was arrested today on charges that he obtained his naturalized citizenship through fraud by failing to disclose his prior acts of persecution and crimes committed during the Bosnian conflict, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Tristram J. Coffin of the District of Vermont, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge in Boston Bruce M. Foucart and Special Agent in Charge Andrew W. Vale of the FBI’s Albany, N.Y., Field Office.

According to the indictment filed in Burlington, Sakoè committed naturalization fraud by providing false and fraudulent information about his commission of crimes and his participation in the persecution of Bosnian Serbs during the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina.  Specifically, the indictment alleges that, in July 1992, Sakoè kidnapped and raped a Bosnian Serb woman and aided and abetted the murder of her elderly mother and aunt.  Sakoè also allegedly aided and abetted the burning of the victims’ family home.  According to the indictment, Sakoè allegedly failed to disclose his participation in these activities during his immigration and naturalization process.
 
Sakoè was charged in a two-count indictment filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court in the District of Vermont.  The charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison as well as automatic revocation of his U.S. citizenship and a fine of up to $250,000.

The case is being investigated jointly by HSI Burlington and the FBI’s Albany Division.  ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center assisted in this investigation. Valuable assistance was provided by the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs and its counterpart at the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Members of the public who have information about former human rights violators in the United States are urged to contact U.S. law enforcement through the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section at hrsptips@usdoj.gov or toll-free at 1-800-813-5863 or the HSI tip line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or to complete its online tip form at www.ice.gov/exec/forms/hsi-tips/tips.asp.

The case is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Matthew C. Singer of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugenia Cowles of the District of Vermont.

The charges in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Brett Fletcher of Trinity Mount Ministries

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