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Former Lansing officer faces federal sex charges

By Staff Report - | Dec 30, 2010

Brian Duncan

A onetime Officer of the Year in the Lansing Police Department was charged Thursday with attempting to entice a minor for illicit sex.

William Brian Duncan, 40, of Leavenworth, a former Lansing police officer and school board member, was charged in federal court, said Beth Phillips, United States attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Duncan was charged in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo. Duncan remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the complaint, Duncan communicated online with a person he believed to be 14 years old. In reality, Duncan was communicating with an undercover law enforcement officer. Duncan corresponded with the undercover officer on multiple occasions in December 2010; many of the conversations were sexual in nature.

The affadavit said during an online chat on Tuesday, Dec. 28, Duncan began making arrangements to meet in person. Duncan drove to the meeting location the next day. When Duncan approached the location, he was pulled over by a Kansas City, Mo., police officer and arrested.

Duncan was an officer with the Lansing Police Department until November 2010. He had been a DARE officer and coordinator of the Safe Kids program and was named Officer of the Year in 2008. Duncan resigned from the Lansing School Board in November.

Phillips cautioned that the charge is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore is prosecuting the case, which was investigated by the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force.