University Professor Imprisoned for Attempt to Have Sex with 14-Year-Old
A university professor was sentenced in federal court on Thursday for traveling to Kansas City, Missouri, to meet a 14-year-old girl in order to engage in sex knowing she was a minor, according to with a person whom he believed to be a 14-year-old runaway.
Kevin Connor Armitage, 54, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to two years and nine months in federal prison without parole, according to a federal indictment handed down Wednesday.
The convicted child predator was an associate professor of individualized studies. Miami University spokeswoman Claire Wagner told anyone telephoning about the incident that Armitage resigned on June 13. His biography no longer appears on the university’s website as of Wednesday morning.
“Miami is appalled and shocked to learn of these allegations of illicit sexual behavior,” Wagner said in her statement.
“It is especially repulsive that the allegations involve conduct that would endanger a minor. Under no circumstances is this type of unlawful behavior tolerated by our campus community,” she stated.
According to the Justice Department report, an FBI employee was monitoring public message threads on a website that hosts a discussion forum and private messaging services about prostitution.
Armitage was a senior member of the website, according to the affidavit, and he wanted a “recommendation” for a visit to Kansas City.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Teresa A. Moore in Missouri said Armitage had 576 postings that detail his prior experiences with prostitutes in Ohio, Arizona, Tijuana, Kansas and Colorado.
He was given a phone number for a different FBI employee, who was posed as a 14-year-old girl. After several conversations, the affidavit says, Armitage agreed to meet the girl’s cousin at a restaurant in Kansas City.
An undercover agent, posing as the cousin, met Armitage at the restaurant, and he was arrested. Missouri’s age of consent is 17.
Pedophilia (Pedophilic Disorder) is defined as recurrent experiences of intense sexual arousal, fantasies, sexual urges or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children, usually under the age of 14. The person has acted on these sexual urges or fantasies cause the person distress or problems in interpersonal relationships.
