Booher in trouble again
 

Former lawyer sees new sex crime claim

Damon Lawrence roanecounty.com

Two days after being shot at, former attorney Kent Booher was arrested.

He’s charged with violating the sexual offender registry and solicitation of aggravated statutory rape.

The latter charge stems from his alleged conversations with an undercover law enforcement agent posing as a teenage girl.

“On March 3, 2019, Booher began chatting with a Facebook Messenger profile that he believed to be a 16-year-old female,” the warrant on the solicitation charge said. “During that conversation, Booher solicited the profile for sexual activity by inviting who he believed to be a 16-year-old female to accompany him to a hotel and get in a jacuzzi naked.”

Booher reportedly expressed some concerns about the purported female’s age “because he had previously ‘been convicted of statutory rape,’” the warrant said.

“Nonetheless, Booher gave his phone number to the profile and asked her to call him sometime,” the warrant said.

“Subsequently, using the phone number provided by Booher, the undercover agent began to exchange text messages and phone calls with him.”

Rockwood resident Linda Flanagan was charged with attempted first degree murder for allegedly shooting at Booher on March 6.

That incident reportedly came up in a chat between Booher and the undercover agent who was posing as the 16-year-old.

A transcript of the chat is included in the court records.

Agent: “So everyone is talking about u getting shot today and all kinds of rumors going around.”

Booher: “What’s being said?”

Agent: “U were actually shot over drugs.”

Booher: “Wow. Never have I ever.”

During a phone conversation, Booher reportedly “discussed his aversion to wearing a condom during sex and told the agent that, ‘I can assure you multiple orgasms’,” the warrant said.

Booher, 64, is on the Tennessee Sexual Offender Registry because he pleaded guilty on two counts of statutory rape in Loudon County in 2014.

He was disbarred as an attorney by the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Harriman police have accused Booher of violating the registry on five different occasions.

“This affiant researched the Facebook social media website and located a web page owned and used by the defendant, which had several photographs on it with the defendant posing in them,” Harriman Police Department Sgt. Kent Warren said in a separate warrant.

Warren said Booher didn’t report the opening of his Facebook account “during his annual registration update interview on Jan. 25, 2019,” the warrant said.

Booher was arrested on March 8.

He’s scheduled to appear in court on the charges on May 14. 

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3/18/19