Seth Estes Vanover, Child Enticement, Florida 2023

A former Texas police lieutenant has been sentenced to 12 years and 11 months in federal prison for attempting to entice an 11-year-old child to engage in sexual activity using an online social messaging app.

Seth Estes Vanover, 52, of Diana, Texas, was sentenced on November 21, 2023, by Chief United States District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

According to court documents, on July 25, 2022, an undercover FBI agent began an online operation designed to identify individuals seeking to meet with and engage in sexual activity with children. Posing as a person with access to an 11-year-old child, the undercover agent posted a notice on the app and was then contacted by a user named “jattleson,” later identified as Vanover.

Vanover confirmed that he was “into yung” and sent the undercover agent several photos depicting child erotica and a nude adult male. Vanover and the undercover agent discussed the sexual experience of the purported “child.” Vanover stated that he would “love to” meet them in Florida and would “love to be naked with” the “child.”

Vanover and the undercover agent engaged in more online conversations in August and September 2022, during which the two discussed, among other things, meeting in Florida so that Vanover could molest the “child.” Vanover described in graphic detail the sexual acts that he intended to perform on the “child,” and he directed the undercover agent to talk to and prepare the “child” for the intended sexual activity.

On October 12, 2022, FBI agents arrested Vanover at the Longview Police Department in Longview, Texas, and Vanover, a police lieutenant, resigned on that same day. Agents searched the patrol car used by Vanover and recovered a cellphone that belonged to Vanover. A search of Vanover’s phone revealed that it contained, among other things, at least 234 videos and 133 photos depicting the sexual abuse of children, including infants, toddlers, and other young children.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the assistance and cooperation of the Longview (Texas) Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

As part of his sentence, Vanover was ordered to serve a 15-year term of supervised release, register as a sex offender, and forfeit four iPhone devices. He had pleaded guilty on August 21, 2023.

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