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Thom Mrozek (213) 894-6947 |
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Release No. 07-057
April 20, 2007
TEXAS MAN WHO TRAVELED TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TO HAVE SEX WITH MINOR AND PLAYED ROLE IN TEEN-AGE GIRL’S SUICIDE PLEADS GUILTY
A Dallas, Texas resident pleaded guilty this morning to federal charges of interstate travel to have sex with a 14-year-old girl he had met on the Internet, a teen-ager who committed suicide after the man broke off the relationship.
Kiley Ryan Bowers, 29, appeared in United States District Court in Santa Ana and pleaded guilty to the interstate travel charge, as well as one count of transportation of child pornography. Pursuant to a plea agreement, Bowers is expected to receive a 9-year prison term when he is sentenced on June 18, 2007 by United States District Judge Andrew J. Guilford.
According to court documents, Bowers met the girl, who was 14 years old and lived in Orange County, California, on the Internet in 2005. According to the complaint, Bowers helped the girl create a profile on myspace.com. When the girl’s parents checked the girl’s profile in 2005, they found messages from Bowers on it. They told her not to contact Bowers because of his age, took her computer away for a few months, and deleted the myspace account.
Court documents state that the girl continued contact with Bowers from computers at school and through the use of the telephone. After a series of Internet messages and telephone conversations, Bowers traveled to Southern California in December 2005. According to a statement the girl made to investigators, they had sex in Bowers’ rental car and at a hotel in Lake Forest.
In May 2006, Bowers ended the relationship with the girl. In June 2006, the girl, who was then 15, told her parents about the December incident. The matter was then referred to local authorities, who referred the matter to authorities. In July, the teen-ager committed suicide, and according to Bowers’ plea agreement, she “left a suicide note suggesting that defendant was partially responsible for causing her suicide.”
This case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Team (the SAFE Team), a multi-agency task force committed to investigating and prosecuting child exploitation crimes.
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Release No. 07-057
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