An Arizona high school principal has been taken into custody for allegedly attempting to convince a 12-year-old girl to engage in inappropriate activities, including taking explicit photos and engaging in sexual acts. Authorities report that the principal made disturbing comments, stating that he didn’t mind her age.
A principal at Buckeye Union High School in Buckeye, Joseph Kinney, allegedly used an anonymous social media app called “Whisper” to converse with an individual he believed to be a young girl. However, as revealed in court documents obtained by Fox 10 Phoenix, the person he was communicating with was an undercover agent.
Investigators focused their attention on Kinney in July after he replied to a post from the agent asking, “bored lol what should I do,” according to the station.
Kinney, under the username “Macabre Pure,” suggested for her to relax in bed and remove her clothing.
The agent, who was pretending to be a young girl, informed him that she was only 12 years old and found his request to be strange.
“I have no issue with your age,” Kinney responded disturbingly, as stated in the court documents.
Subsequent discussions took a more explicit turn, as the principal reportedly asked the girl to send explicit photos, according to the documents.
According to the Arizona Republic, he expressed a desire to “rescue” her from her grandmother’s Oregon home, where the agent alleged they were staying, to engage in various sexual acts.
On September 3rd, federal authorities located his IP address and subsequently conducted a raid at his residence in Goodyear, Arizona. On the same day, the individual was apprehended during a routine traffic stop and subsequently placed on administrative leave, as reported by the Republic. The principal, captured in a mugshot wearing a flower-patterned shirt, can be seen grimacing.
According to the documents shared by Fox 10, Kinney later confessed to speaking with multiple females on Whisper who claimed to be underage.
Kinney is facing charges of luring a minor for sexual exploitation and is currently being held on a $60,000 bond. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for September 12th.