Federal Trial Jury Finds Texas Man Guilty of Kidnapping an Adult Victim and Transportation of a Minor Across State Lines for Illegal Sexual Activity

Louisville, KY – Friday evening a federal jury convicted a Texas Man of fifteen criminal offenses to include transportation of a person for illegal sexual activity, transportation of a minor for illegal sexual activity, and inveigle and decoy kidnapping. To “inveigle” a person means to lure, or entice, or lead the person to do something by making false representations or promises or using other deceitful means. “Decoy” means enticement or luring by means of some fraud, trick, or temptation. He was also convicted of bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, and interstate threats to ransom.

U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky and Special Agent in Charge Michael E. Stansbury of the FBI Louisville Field Office made the announcement.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, in November of 2018, Bryan Douglas Conley, age 41, used an online dating website to lure and entice a minor from Ohio to travel to Tennessee to meet with him. Conley created and used a false online profile named “Bryant” and offers of money and property to lure the minor across state lines. Conley and the false profile “Bryant” offered the minor money for sexual activity in Kentucky and Tennessee. Conley ultimately abandoned the minor several days later in Texas and stole her purse and phone. 

In January of 2019, Conley used an online date website to inveigle and decoy an adult victim. Conley created the online profile “Lance Debeers” and falsely claimed to be a modeling agent. Both Conley and “Lance” engaged the victim in discussions about modeling. On January 29, 2019, Conley met the victim in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. He took the victim’s phone and provided her an unknown substance to drink as part of the modeling contract. He bound the victim and drove around Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee issuing ransom demands to the victims’ parents in Tennessee. The ransom demands included threats to physically and sexually harm the victim if his demands were not met.

On January 30, 2019, Conley retrieved a ransom placed by the FBI in Oak Grove, Kentucky. He was arrested shortly after retrieving the ransom. The victim was located in the car. Prior to the kidnapping, Conley met the victim and took her credit card and attempted to make purchases at a retail store in Oak Grove, Kentucky. He also attempted to access her credit card customer profile using the victim’s social security number. 

In June of 2019, after Conley had been arrested and released from custody and ordered to wear an ankle monitoring device, he removed the device and fled to Ohio.  He was subsequently arrested and detained.

Conley is scheduled for sentencing on March 11, 2024, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Conley remains in federal custody pending sentencing. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 12 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine the sentence after considering the sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

There is no parole in the federal system.

The FBI, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Brentwood Tennessee Police Department, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua Judd and Joel King are prosecuting the case with assistance from paralegal James Aaron Cooper.

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