The former Edmonson County High School teacher accused of attempting to produce child pornography and attempted child enticement has pled not guilty in federal court, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky
William Oneal Lindsey, 29, of Brownsville, who was indicted by a federal grand jury, pled not guilty via his attorney on Thursday. Lindsey, according to the Bowling Green Daily News, waived his right to be present for the arraignment. He is free on a $25,000 bond.
According to the criminal complaint filed against Lindsey, on January 7, 2021, he began an online conversation that was sexual in nature with what he believed to be a minor, officials said. But in fact, Lindsey was talking with an undercover officer with the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General’s Department of Criminal Investigations.
After several days of conversations, Lindsey was taken into custody at Edmonson County High School on January 13, 2021. According to the complaint, Lindsey waived his Miranda rights 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,” prosecutors said. “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 maximum penalty for attempted enticement of a minor is no less than 10 years and no more than life, while attempted production of child pornography carries a sentence of no less than 15 years, and no more than life.
Both counts carry a $250,000 fine.
Lindsey was the JAG coordinator at Edmonson County High School, according to the school’s website, but has since been terminated. JAG is a “school to work transition program designed to keep students in school through graduation and help them transition into the workplace in quality jobs,” according to the national JAG website.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
