LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A Louisville, Jefferson County Public Schools teacher has been charged in a criminal complaint, and detained as ordered by United States Magistrate Judge Regina S. Edwards for attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity, announced United States Attorney Russell M. Coleman.

Brandon Lee Dietz, 37, was placed in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service on Friday.

According to a criminal complaint filed on November 30, 2018, law enforcement became aware of Dietz’s actions on November 19, 2018, when an undercover investigator, authorized by the Kentucky Attorney General’s Department of Criminal Investigations, posing as a 14-year-old girl, was contacted over KiK messenger by an unknown subject. A conversation developed which was made sexual by the subject, including a request for sexual images, and a request to meet in person to engage in sex acts. The subject, later revealed through investigatory techniques to be Brandon Dietz, also sent two “live” images of himself to what he believed to be the 14-year old, but was actually an undercover investigator. The conversation between Dietz continued through the night of November 20, and into the next day. On November 21, 2018, the undercover agent agreed to meet Dietz in Jeffersontown, Kentucky.

Law enforcement set up surveillance in the area where the undercover agent set up to meet Dietz. The Defendant, driving a blue Honda Civic, passed one of the unmarked law enforcement vehicles. Shortly thereafter, Deitz texted the undercover agent and said he believed he was being “set up.” Deitz specifically identified areas where, in fact, unmarked law enforcement vehicles were sitting. Officials moved their vehicles, and the Defendant entered the subdivision where the meeting place was set. The vehicle immediately turned around within sight of a previously identified law enforcement vehicle and left the neighborhood at a high rate of speed. The vehicle did not come to a complete stop at the posted stop sign. The undercover investigator initiated a traffic stop, however, the vehicle did not immediately stop in spite of the use of lights and siren. When Dietz stopped the undercover investigator recognized the Defendant from images sent during the KiK communications.

In a post-Miranda interview with Dietz he admitted to traveling to the area to meet a “girl” he met online. According to the criminal complaint, Dietz admitted to having a sexual conversation with the UC after learning she was a minor, and acknowledged driving to Jeffersontown with the intent to have sex with the underage girl.

Assistant United States Attorney Jo E. Lawless is prosecuting the case. The Kentucky Attorney General’s Office – Department of Criminal Investigations conducted the investigation with support from the United States Secret Service.

####

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.