COMPUTER SEX INQUIRY NABS AGENT

LAWTON -- A federal drug agent was accused Monday in Comanche County of
using the Internet to lure a 15-year-old girl to meet with him for sex.

Kevin Waters, 36, an agent for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration
in Oklahoma City, was charged Monday with using a computer to facilitate a
crime.

Lawton police arrested Waters on Saturday in Central Mall, where he had
arranged a meeting with the girl, Police Chief Bill Adamson said. Waters
had several "suggestive" conversations with the girl in an Internet chat
room, Adamson said.

At his initial appearance Monday, Waters pleaded not guilty to the charge
and Special District Judge David Lewis set his bond at $1,000. A
preliminary hearing is scheduled next month.

Waters' attorney, Irven R. Box, said his client didn't know the person he
was chatting with over the computer was a minor.

"Our position right now is we do not believe he propositioned a minor
child," Box said. "Her aunt was involved in receiving some of the messages
over the Internet and transmitting them."

Adamson said a relative of the girl noticed "disturbing information" on the
Internet and contacted police. Detectives reportedly told the relative to
continue talking to the suspect, whose identity they knew only through an
online code name, he said.

Robert Schulte, district attorney for Comanche and Cotton counties, said
the computer conversations were being monitored by law enforcement
officers. The defendant was told on more than one occasion that the girl he
was speaking with was 15, the prosecutor said.

After about two or three weeks of conversations over the computer, a
meeting was arranged, and police sent a 12-year-old decoy to meet Waters,
authorities said.

Waters and the girl, who was under surveillance, talked briefly and he
asked the girl to leave with him, authorities said. Schulte said Waters was
arrested when he and the girl attempted to leave the mall.

Police did not know Waters worked for the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration until after the arrest, Schulte said.

DEA officials reportedly did call Monday to inquire about the case, but
they have not attempted to interfere and pledged to cooperate.

The charge carries a possible punishment of up to five years in prison.