By Cathy Logg
Herald Writer
An Everett man who officials say claims to have had sex with children as young as 17 months old took a bus to California allegedly to have sex with an 11-year-old girl. Instead, FBI agents greeted him at the bus station and arrested him.
Donald Leroy Keffler, 41, of Everett has been charged in a federal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, Calif., with two federal charges, one of which could send him to prison for life.
The charges are traveling in interstate commerce for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts with someone less than 12 years old, and crossing at least one state line to engage in sexual acts with someone under 12.
Keffler was arrested about 11 p.m. Monday in Marysville, Calif., north of Sacramento, FBI spokesman Ray Lauer said Thursday.
Agents seized Keffler’s luggage, which contained two hard drives he reportedly planned to connect to the girl’s computer to show her pictures and movies.
He made an initial appearance in federal court Tuesday and was scheduled to return today for a detention hearing. He remains in the Sacramento County Jail.
Keffler reportedly met a girl he believed to be 11 through an Internet chat room. But she actually was a woman who has acted as an informant in child pornography cases in Arizona and Kentucky, pretending to be young girls in chat rooms.
She told an FBI agent in late April that she had been chatting with a Washington man named Don who used the screen name "Familiar Spirit." She later told them his last name and phone number, that he lives in Everett, and that he was a sheet metal worker who works 12-hour days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The man told her he had met a woman online who had a 17-month-old daughter and that he had been molesting the girl, the complaint says.
He also allegedly told her that he had friends in Oak Harbor who have two boys, ages 2 and 5, whom both he and the boys’ parents have been molesting. The mother runs a child sex chat room, the informant said the man told her.
Keffler allegedly sent the woman numerous pictures that appear to depict child pornography, including some he claimed were of himself having sex with very young children, the complaint says.
The informant turned over to agents three computer disks she said she received from Keffler. They contained several photographs and an online conversation between Familiar Spirit and the informant, using a screen name. In the conversation, Familiar Spirit tells her that she won’t be a virgin within minutes after meeting him and that she would be his sex kitten, the complaint says.
One photograph on the disk labeled "Don.jpg" shows a man who looks like Keffler’s driver’s license photograph, the complaint says. It alleges another shows a toddler girl with a man in an obscene position. Keffler told the girl he took the picture, the complaint says.
Keffler allegedly made a reservation at a motel in Yuba City, near Marysville, Calif., so that he would be within walking distance of the girl’s school. He planned to walk to her house to meet her and take her back to his motel, the complaint says.
You can call Herald Writer Cathy Logg at 425-339-3437
or send e-mail to logg@heraldnet.com.
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