COVINGTON, Ky. - A Maysville, Ky., man, William Scott Smith, 39, pleaded guilty on Monday, before U.S. District Judge David Bunning, to attempted enticement of a minor.

According to his plea agreement, on September 9, 2019, law enforcement received information that Smith was attempting to solicit a minor female victim for sex.  The following day, law enforcement created a fake Facebook profile, for a 14-year-old female, and sent Scott a friend request.  Scott accepted the friend request and initiated a conversation with an undercover officer who was posing as the minor.  Scott engaged in a graphic conversation with the minor, inquiring about her age and sexual experience.  Scott then arranged to meet the minor at a public library to have sex.  When he arrived for the meeting, he was arrested.  

Scott was indicted in February 2020.

Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; James Robert Brown, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office; and Chief Jared Muse, Maysville Police Department, jointly announced the guilty plea.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and Maysville Police Department.  The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elaine Leonhard and Jennifer Weinhold. 

Scott is scheduled to be sentenced on December 8, 2020. He faces a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison.  However, any sentence will be imposed by the Court, after its consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal sentencing statutes.

This 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.  Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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