Jail Bait
An FBI agent uses his daughter’s picture to lure an accused cyber predator.
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[February 13th, 2008]
It’s a case straight out of crime TV. A high-powered Seattle lawyer finds a 14-year-old girl in an Internet chat room and talks her into meeting him for some kinky sex in a hotel. But when he shows up at a Portland MAX stop for the promised spanking session, he gets handcuffed by FBI agents, who were posing as the girl online to snare sexual predators.
The lawyer—54-year-old William Knowles—is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday, Feb. 13, at U.S. District Court in Portland. Prosecutors have asked that he receive 6 1/2 years in prison.
The hearing caps a case with several surprising turns, including this revelation: A Portland FBI agent used his own daughter’s photo as digital bait to lure Knowles.
Knowles’ trial last August featured testimony from five of his adult sex partners about BDSM, a sexual subculture that favors bondage and sado-masochism. Called as defense witnesses, the women gave explicit testimony about BDSM, saying Knowles was part of that scene but has never been attracted to underage girls.
“It was all very salacious. I got educated, we’ll put it that way, and my job is pornography prosecution,” says Greg Nyhus, an assistant U.S. attorney and the lead prosecutor.
Knowles, a labor lawyer who lobbied for the Association of Flight Attendants, also took the stand to say he thought he was meeting an adult woman who was pretending online to be an underage girl.
In response, Nyhus’ team showed the jury erotic photos of young girls taken from Knowles’ computer. They also submitted as evidence items Knowles was carrying when he arrived at 4 pm to meet the girl, including lubricants, a gag ball and a cat o’ nine tails.
But the most shocking moment may have come when a teenage girl arrived to watch the trial. According to Nyhus, that girl was the daughter of Joel Brillhart, the FBI agent who adopted a teenage girl’s persona to chat with Knowles online, and his wife, Jane Brillhart, another FBI agent who aided the prosecution team during the trial.
According to Nyhus, Joel Brillhart sent his daughter’s photos to Knowles when they were chatting online, claiming it was the girl Knowles was exchanging messages with. The fact that she came to the courtroom to watch the trial—her parents quickly shooed her out of the room—seems to indicate the parents discussed the case with her.
Joel Brillhart not only used his daughter’s photo but also many of the details of her life in his online chats with Knowles, according to Scott Greer, a computer-network administrator at the public defenders’ office who attended the trial as a spectator.
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“It’s like this whole family affair thing with this guy,” Greer says. “Just imagine the dinner-table conversation.”
Joel and Jane Brillhart declined to comment. Joel Brillhart has since been removed from the FBI’s cyber-sleuthing initiative, known as Innocent Images. “Joel didn’t leave the program for any other reason than it’s a very taxing kind of job,” says Beth Anne Steele, an FBI spokeswoman.
It’s not a breach of ethics for an investigator to use his daughter’s photo as bait, says Dan Carlson, director of the Institute for Law Enforcement Administration in Plano, Texas.
“Using an image to support the persona that you’re developing is one thing,” says Carlson, former assistant director of training for the New York State Police. “I would not have placed my own child’s picture in that sort of position. But that’s a personal thing.”
In one other bizarre twist, Nyhus says the daughter’s high-school science teacher was on the jury.
And here’s another: There was also a touch of local politics in Knowles’ visit. Knowles met with the staff of U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-Ore.) the day of his arrest to discuss business for the flight attendants’ union. He canceled an appointment with U.S. Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) to make his arranged date July 15, 2004, at the PGE Park MAX stop.
Greer believes Knowles was duped. “It’s clear that Knowles was a victim of entrapment,” Greer says. “The FBI went chumming for sharks and snagged a carp by mistake.”
Nyhus says any entrapment claim is laughable.
“That Knowles is innocent stretches the imagination when the evidence clearly establishes that he had a pronounced and distinct interest in underage women,” Nyhus says.
The jury found Knowles guilty Aug. 17, 2007, of one count of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity and one count of interstate travel for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. Knowles plans to appeal.
Excerpts from Knowles’ online discussion with the FBI:
Knowles: ... are you going to be able to not talk too much to others?
Knowles: and can you be really cool with mom about this
FBI: I promise I wont ...
FBI: k ttyl xoxox
Knowles: so be brave
FBI: i will
Knowles: you are in the hands of someone who is safe and experienced who you can trust.
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For an update on Knowles' sentencing, click here.
90% of the "females" online sex chat is guys pretending to be women,50% of the underage are adults pretending to be underage and 49.5% are cops talking dirty to each other and sending know series of underage porn to each other. This FBI family is sick and very kinky!
So, the FBI is so desperate to put someone, anyone, in prison, they PIMP OUT their own children!
I wonder what Chelsea would say?
They knew the creep wouldn't actually meet the girl; so what's the problem? Why not bait these jerks into jail. Rather waste time and money on predators than pot growers.
What's the problem? The problem is any normal parent wouldn't want a suspected child predator obtaining photos of their child, much less in a sexualized context. It's weird and twisted. The normal instinct is to protect your child, not use them as literal bait for a suspected criminal.
They did NOT pimp out their daughter. How cab Greer say "Just imagine the dinner-table conversation"? That is petty and imature. I'm sure that this entire incident at the trial was never intended. Also, I doubt that they discussed more than the necessities of the case with their daughter. It was a mistake for her to go to the trial, but she DID help put the creep in jail.
Uh... You defenders of this action need to think of a father roll playing the rape of his daughter as her picture is in front of him, playing along with this erotic adult fantisy. Yes two male adults, one roll playing as a young girl the other knowing he is talking to an adult (welcome to chat rooms on the internet, it happens thousands of times a day). We can do all the "but he is doing it for the children / for his job" BS in trying to cover for a sick family of FBI agents. Then picture far away a man that has a kinky hobby that does not involve children, playing along with who he thinks (and actually is, for that matter) is an adult roll playing as a child.
WRONG on so many levels!
This FBI Agent neglected his first and foremost responsibility, his family. Before his "job" as a special agent must come the safety and security of his family. This guy put his daughter unnecessarily in harms way. There are plenty of murder victims of child predators out there, I am sure that those victims parents would jump at the chance of having their child's death not be in vain. What better way then to off er this picture to the FBI to use in catching child predators?? This family should not have been involved to the extent that they were. He should be ashamed for including them in privileged information such as the sting operations of a federal agency. How un-proffesional.
Thanks for the new nickname, Dad!
THINK ABOUT IT! Are you suggesting the police/FBI grab pics from myspace or facebook and, without the knowledge of a minor or their parent, use those pictures during these stings? Give me a break! The collective anti-law enforcement bias here is unbelievable.
This guy is a pervert, he got caught and the only thing left to do is try to blame someone else instead admitting he's a sexual deviant who attempted to exploit a very young girl.
I couldn't help but notice this guy seemed to be chummy with the Democrats....I wonder how the comments might be different if the perv had been a Republican....
r. james = 100% right.
r.james,
I was not suggesting that the police pull random photos from "Facebook", of "My Space". What I was suggesting is that they contact parents who have lost children to child predators in the past. The children are already deceased. WITH THE PARENTS PERMISSION!!,These photos could be used to portray the FBI agents identities online, and catch future child predators. Read the comment before you respond to it. In no way did I state that this person was innocent of the crimes he is accused of. I simply stated that his decision to utilize his own daughters picture to a possible dangerous individual was a poor and irresponsible decision. Furthermore, I am a registered republican. Contrary to popular belief, being a republican does not mean you give up your ability to think critically about the issues that surround the world you live in. :) This FBI agent was irresponsible in using his own daughters picture in this operation. Good thing this same sexual predator was put behind bars, and not released back into the public. How scary would that have been for this guys family.
I've done a little sleuthing, and it appears the Brillhart gals are no strangers to ball gags.
Did you know the Brillhart gals starred in the "torture porn" sleazefest titled Untraceable?
The Brillharts are in the credits, they were paid to play, so the entire family appears to have an unhealthy interest in torture and pornography.
Is that just plain weird, or actionable?
I think I'll let I.A. handle it.
OMG your right! How freaky is that! Does WW know about this??
check it out..
Where is this part of this story?
This twisted family saga just gets better and better!
www.fearnet.com/MCNewsDetailPage.as...
It seems the Diane Lane character in "Untraceable" was based on Mommy Brillhart, who wants her daughter to be a movie star so bad, she used her connections in the Portland FBI office to get her daughter "Spanky" a part in that torture porn sleazefest filmed here in Portland last year.
If this story ever gets to D.C., the Brillharts are through in this town. Luckily, the media here (Hi Drew @ KGW) is very, very sleepy.
I'm about as weirded out by the actions of FBI Dad as I am by Cyber Creep. Yuck. What the hell goes through a person's head to put their kid's photos and info in that kind of context?