TownTalk Media has an update on the arrest of a Brownfield man, Joel Kenady (32). TownTalk reached out to the US Marshals early Friday morning to get more information on the arrest, and the Marshal’s service said that Homeland Security (HSI) is the department that arrested Kenady. Authorities went to 1218 E. Cardwell in Brownfield to perform a sting operation to arrest Kenady around 7:00 a.m. Thursday, March 7, 2024. Kedady was arrested without incident.
According to court documents, federal charges were issued after Kenady was accused of “sexually exploiting” a 12-year-old girl from Corpus Christi Texas by text messages. The Federal documents show that a child made a complaint at a middle school in Corpus Christi during a Homeland Security presentation in February. Records show “a child said her friend was in a relationship with an adult.” HSI agents identified the victim and told them Kenady was related to one of her friends, and they encountered each other in a group chat. Kenady and the victim then began to chat privately, which turned into them talking about “sexual things.” In the documents, according to the victim, the private chats began to intensify to include nude photos and sexually explicit videos.
HSI Agents searched an iPad and found several messages dated from December 4, 2023, to January 16, 2024. According to the court documents those messages included questions about the victim’s virginity and sexual comments. Also, the court documents show that Kenady told the victim they seemed “older mentally … like 28.” Kenady also told the victim he could get a hotel room, and offered to bring Plan B. The victim explained to HSI that they finally realized what Kenady was doing when he told her that he was married with children. Court documents show HSI found roughly 30,000 text messages between the victim and Kenady. According to HSI, they found two photos of the victim that contained child sexual abuse material, and up to five sexual photos of Kenady.
According to the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office, Kenady has nt had a bond set and is still in the Lubbock County Detention Center.
