Federal agent planned sex with 13 year old in Eastern WA. He gets 11+ year sentence
A former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has been sentenced to 11 years and three months in federal prison after traveling 72 miles to Othello in Eastern Washington expecting to have sex with a 13-year-old girl.
A federal jury in Spokane found Koby Don Williams, 49, of Ellensburg , guilty of attempted online enticement of a minor in May, and he was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. Judge Thomas Rice .
At the time of his arrest at an Othello hotel he was an ICE officer and was carrying his loaded government gun and law enforcement badge, according to court documents.
"Mr. Williams held a duty of trust within the Eastern Washington law enforcement community, and he breached that trust by seeking out what he thought was a child for sex," said Vanessa Waldref, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington . "He then attempted to use his position as a law enforcement officer to explain away his conduct."
Williams told his wife in a recorded jailhouse call after he was arrested in July 2022 that he had been working on a human trafficking investigation based on a Drug Enforcement Administration tip.
Craigslist sex ad
He planned to meet with a victim to give her a hotline help number, he said, according to court documents.
Williams responded to a phone number in an ad two hours after it was posted on Craigslist by an undercover Othello detective, according to court documents.
The ad was a purported warning that a 13-year-old "prostitute" was posing in Moses Lake as a 19 year old and gave her phone number.
Williams communicated in text messages with "Rebecca," discussing her age, what she charged for sexual acts and what she was willing to do before he booked a room at the Quality Inn in Othello three days after the ad was posted, according to the documents.
"I am a cop," he texted her, according to court documents. "And I will lose my job by doing this, but I'm not afraid. You know if I make the transaction and proposal that you are in the clear."
At one point he suggested that he might bring a boy with him to allow him to learn about sex, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ann Wick, in court documents.
Williams was arrested as he arrived at the motel room he had booked.
Agent said he was rescuing child
When arresting officers found his Office of Homeland Security badge, Williams said he was there to "rescue a minor screaming for help on Craigslist."
Wick said in a court document that representatives of the DEA and other federal agencies confirmed that no case had been referred to Williams, who was then an ICE officer.
"Mr. Williams knew exactly what he was doing as he attempted to meet a minor for sex," Richard Collodi, special agent in charge of the FBI's Seattle field office.
A search of Williams' car in the hotel parking lot found $4,075 in cash, two bottles of vodka and bottles of pills, including generic Viagra.
Williams had a history of issues with mental health and alcohol abuse and had completed a two-week inpatient treatment program about two years before his crime, according to court documents.
"While it may be that defendant was at a very low point in his life the summer of 2022, he was nevertheless interested in and willing to exploit a young teen to satisfy his own sexual desires," Wick said in court documents. "No amount of alcoholism or depression or self-pity can justify his actions."
After Williams is released from prison, he will spend 15 years on probation, under Rice's ruling.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood , a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.
It was investigated by the FBI, Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, Othello Police Department, Moses Lake Police Department, and the Toppenish Police Department, with the assistance of the Washington State Department of Corrections.
