Ex-Longview police lieutenant sentenced to more than 12 years in prison
Published: Fri, 12/22/23
Ex-Longview police lieutenant sentenced to more than 12 years in prison
Seth Vanover
Longview News-Journal
From staff reports
A former Longview 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, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Seth Estes Vanover, 52, of Diana also 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 in August.
According to court documents and evidence discussed in open court, on July 25, 2022, an undercover FBI agent began an online operation designed to identify people seeking to meet with and engage in sexual activity with children, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
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 he was “into yung” and sent the undercover agent several photos depicting child erotica and a nude adult male, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Vanover and the undercover agent discussed the sexual experience of the purported “child.”
Vanover said 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 meeting in Florida so that Vanover could molest what he believed was the 11-year-old child.
In October 2022, FBI agents arrested Vanover at the Longview Police Department, and he resigned that same day.
Agents searched the patrol car used by Vanover and recovered a cellphone that belonged to him. A search of Vanover’s phone revealed 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, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. This phone also contained sexually explicit online communications that Vanover had with other app users, as well as child sexual abuse videos and photos that he had solicited and received during some of these conversations.