Source: Office of United States Attorneys
Yakima, Washington – Vanessa R. Waldref, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced today that David Elmo Curry, 38 of Clarkston, Washington, was sentenced on two counts of Attempted Enticement of a Minor. Curry was convicted of those crimes on December 6, 2023, following a jury trial. Chief United States District Judge Stanley A. Bastian imposed a sentence of 156 months in federal prison to be followed by 10 years of supervised release.
According to court documents and information disclosed at trial and sentencing, Curry was arrested when he arrived at a house in Yakima, Washington after travelling from Kennewick, Washington in order to have sex with two minor girls. Earlier that day, Curry responded to an on-line ad by a woman purporting to be the mother of two daughters – ages 11 and 13. In text and email exchanges, the mother explained she was seeking a man to have sex with her minor children. The on-line ad was actually part of a sting operation conducted by the Washington State Patrol, assisted by the Yakima and Union Gap Police Departments and Homeland Security Investigations and the purported mother was an undercover officer. At the time of his arrest, Curry had condoms and flavored lubricant with him. Curry was then charged in Yakima County Superior Court with Attempted First Degree Attempted Rape of a Child and Second Degree Attempted Rape of a child. He later was released on bail on these state charges.
Following Curry’s release on bail, a Homeland Security Investigations Task Force Officer, acting in an undercover capacity, responded to a separate on-line ad, which Curry placed while on release. The undercover officer represented that he was a thirteen-year-old girl and Curry engaged the officer in sexual talk, requested nude images, and made arrangements to meet with him in person over the course of dozens of email and text messages. At one point, Curry determined the purported child’s preferred candy and purchased flavored lubricant in a corresponding flavor for a planned meeting the next day, which never took place.