DEA AGENT TO STAND TRIAL

A 36-year-old agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration was ordered
Thursday to stand trial on charges of a making a lewd or indecent proposal
to a child under the age of 16.

Charges against Kevin Dewayne Waters of Edmond stem from a May 9 incident
in which Waters allegedly used "a computer or the Internet" to proposition
a teen-age girl.

Waters, who was working with the DEA in Oklahoma City, had allegedly made
numerous indecent proposals to the 15-year-old Lawton girl while
communicating through the Internet.

During a search of his Edmond home, officers seized a computer containing a
large amount of pornographic material, Commanche County Assistant District
Attorney Bill Riley said Wednesday.

Waters was initially charged with attempting to use a computer network to
violate Oklahoma statutes. Those charges were amended shortly after the
preliminary hearing began Thursday in Comanche County District Court before
Special District Judge David Lewis.

Waters has been placed on suspension without pay by the DEA and is to be
formally arraigned by Oct. 9. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in
prison.

During Thursday's hearing, Cindy Miller, a relative of the girl, testified
that she contacted Lawton Police in April because a man on the Internet
wanted to meet her teen relative.

She said the man had talked to her relative in a provocative manner for a
couple of weeks and was insisting on meeting her in Lawton. The man, she
said, had expressed his desire to "come to Lawton and have sex with the
teen" during a conversation in an Internet chat room.

When Miller talked to Lawton Detective Cliff Blasengame, he asked her to
print copies of the conversations.

"The detective had asked us to cooperate and talk to this person, but (the
teen) was scared," she said. So, posing as a 15-year-old girl, Miller said
she talked to the man numerous times for a couple of weeks, reporting her
conversations to Blasengame.

The detective said he warned her not to initiate any provocative
conversations.

Miller copied the conversations that took place through America Online's
"instant messenger," a feature that allows people to send private messages
to people over the Internet.

The man with whom the teen was having conversations had called himself
"Squirrel Shoot," and Miller said she had placed him in her "buddy list" of
friends with whom she talked frequently.

She also testified that she placed the number 15 after her user name to
represent her age. Miller said any Internet user could read her online
profile, where her alleged age was stated.

Miller, 41, said she knew when "Squirrel Shoot" was online because her
buddy list would indicate he had signed into the Internet.

"He said his name was Kent," she said, adding that the man began talking
dirty right away and wanted to meet her in Lawton. On May 9, they agreed to
meet at Central Mall.

"He wanted an address, and later we decided on a public place," she said.

Waters had asked Miller to wear a denim skirt and a purple blouse, she said.

A 12-year-old girl was to pose as the 15-year-old during the meeting at the
mall. The decoy was instructed to buy a soda and sit by a water fountain
and wait to see if the man would show up.

"We instructed her to drop the soda when the man approached her and
identified himself," Blasengame said.

Working with another detective, Blasengame sat near the area and watched
until he noticed a man walking by, staring at the girl. Blasengame said the
decoy's mother and grandmother were also watching, in order to protect the
girl.

"He sat down and looked at her and then went inside a store, but kept
staring toward the girl," he said.

Moments later, Waters walked toward the girl, sat close to her and began
talking to her, Blasengame said.

"They were there talking for a short period of time and then they both got
up and began walking," he said, adding that the girl then dropped her drink
as she had been told to.

Blasengame said detectives moved in and arrested Waters.

The 12-year-old girl testified essentially to the same story as Blasengame
did.

Under questioning by Waters' attorney, J.W. Coyle III, the decoy girl said
Waters never asked her to go to a secluded area alone with him.

The last witness to testify, Police Lt. Charles Whitis, said Waters told
officers he was a DEA agent shortly after he was arrested. Whitis said
Waters indicated that his credentials were in his car.

"(Waters) said, 'Can we talk this out?'" Whitis said.

The detective also said a videotaped statement was taken from the
defendant, who insisted that he didn't know the girl was a minor.

Copyright 1998 The Edmond Evening Sun.

Checked-by: Richard Lake