Man accused of traveling from Indiana for sex with Wisconsin teen pleads not guilty

Paul Srubas
Green Bay Press-Gazette
Jenkins

GREEN BAY - A former Oshkosh man is charged in federal court with traveling from his home in Whitestown, Indiana to Neenah, partly on foot, to have sex with what turned out to be an uncover police officer posing as a 14-year-old girl.

Tommy Lee Jenkins, 32, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Green Bay to using a computer to solicit sex from a minor and with interstate transportation for purposes of engaging in sex with a minor.

U.S. Magistrate James Sickel scheduled a three-day jury trial to start Dec. 31. He also scheduled a Dec. 18 hearing for further proceedings and set motion deadlines for Nov. 25.

Jenkins began exchanging instant messages with a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl on Oct. 1, according to the complaint. The person was actually an investigator with the Winnebago County Sheriff's Office.

Jenkins tried to persuade the “teen” to come to Indiana, suggested they get drunk together, and then started talking about sex and asking for and sending sexually explicit photos, the complaint says.

Jenkins then messaged saying he would walk to Neenah, a distance he said was 371.3 miles, or 108 hours on foot, the complaint says.

He continued communicating and sending photos of himself along the way. During the trip, Jenkins sent the officer images of his travels, including photographs of exit signs and selfies with landmarks such as churches, that were timestamped. Eventually he said he’d made it to Milwaukee and that someone bought him a bus ticket to make it the rest of the way.

At that time, he sent a message to the undercover officer stating that he hoped to have as many as 500 children, the complaint says.

Sheriff's deputies and FBI agents arrested Jenkins when he arrived in Winnebago County Oct. 10, according to the Justice Department.

He faces a mandatory sentence from a minimum of 10 years up to possible life in prison if convicted, assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Humble told Jenkinns in court Wednesday.

In 2011, Winnebago County prosecutors charged Jenkins with two counts of repeated first-degree sexual assault of the same child, but those charges were later reduced to four counts of child abuse. He was sentenced in 2012 to four years of probation.

According to court documents, a 7-year-old boy told a Neenah police investigator in 2011 that Jenkins had grabbed or rubbed his genitals multiple times between July 1 and Sept. 30, 2011, and told him they both would get into trouble if he told anyone.

An 8-year-old boy also told police Jenkins would squeeze his genitals and buttocks and tell him police would arrest the boy if he ever told anyone, according to court documents.

Contact Paul Srubas at (920) 265-3087 or psrubas@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PGpaulsrubas.