Jail Bait

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.

"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.

--------------

For an update on Knowles' sentencing, click here.

BDSM is a combination of the phrases bondage-discipline, dominance-submission and sado-masochism.

WWeek 2015