Stockton Police Worry Music Teacher Caught In Sex Sting May Have More Victims
STOCKTON (CBS13) — A Stockton music teacher is facing charges after police say he tried to meet with an underage girl for sex.
Police say, Keyes Kelly, 70, had been talking to undercover officers for two months. The vice unit posted an ad on Craigslist posing as a 13-year-old girl.
The San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office says Kelly, a Stockton music professor, husband and grandfather responded to one of those ads.
The criminal complaint accuses Kelly of soliciting sex online from who he believed was a 13-year-old girl. The senior allegedly set up a meeting at a Lowe's in Stockton. Prosecutors say instead of finding a teen, he found the Stockton Police Department.
Neighbor Mike Souza says parents would wait in the car while Kelly gave children piano lessons at his home.
"If the allegations are true, then good for the police department," he said. "None of my children went there. But the parents of children who went there should speak to their children I would think."
The DA's office says Kelly has taught children for decades and has a prior conviction from three decades ago for lewd acts with a child. Kelly fought and had the conviction expunged from his record in 1989, when laws were more lax with misdemeanor sex offenses.
"We have people out there who are lurking for and actively trying to persuade our children to have sex with them, and this sting operation is to stop that type of behavior," said deputy district attorney Elton Grau.
