Court date approaching in sexual assault, extortion case

Two locals were charged and arrested last month in a case involving sexual assault of a child and extortion.

Jason Frei, a 55 year old Potter man, was arrested in August for third degree sexual assault of a child, a felony, while Kristie Keenan, mother of the child involved in the case was arrested for theft by extortion, also a felony.

Keenan met with a member of the Cheyenne County Sheriff's department on Aug. 16 to discuss the incident between Frei and her daughter. Keenan, 29, allegedly told law enforcement that Frei had inappropriately touched her daughter at his residence on August 15 of this year. Keenan told law enforcement that Frei had both touched her daughter in inappropriate areas and had exposed himself to her. Keenan admitted to being present when the alleged activity occurred, but reportedly was face down on a massage table and did not actually see it.

Keenan then allegedly admitted to exchanging text messages with Frei after finding out about the activity. She agreed to show these messages to law enforcement. The investigator noticed a time gap in the messages and one text referencing money while no previous ones had any mention of a dollar amount, according to the arrest affidavit. When the investigator noticed discrepancies in the text messages, he worked to obtain search warrants for the cell phones of both Frei and Keenan.

On Aug. 21, law enforcement executed a search warrant of Frei's residence in Potter. Frei arrived at his residence during the search and spoke with law enforcement about the alleged actions.

He told law enforcement that Keenan was attempting to extort $20,000 from him. As of Aug. 21, he admitted to paying Keenan $10,000 and said he still owed her another $10,000. According to Frei this money was in exchange for Keenan's silence regarding inappropriate touching between Frei and her daughter as well as deletion of all text messages regarding the matter.

Frei provided documents showing that he'd withdrawn $12,000 from his bank account, according to the arrest affidavit. He admitted to providing $10,000 of this to Keenan.

He allegedly admitted that Keenan and her daughter had visited his house on Aug. 15, and had gone into the basement where a massage table was set up. Frei then began giving Keenan a massage.

Frei allegedly admitted to touching Keenan's daughter inappropriately while he was giving Keenan a massage. Keenan claimed that Frei hurt her daughter in this process while Frei claimed that any injury happened at a later date at the hands of Keenan. Frei allegedly admitted that he knew what he did was wrong, but continued to touch the girl for about a minute after that.

In an interview with the juvenile involved in this case, Keenan's daughter said she wanted to help Frei give her mother a massage and in this process he touched her underneath her clothing. The child also allegedly said that Frei had exposed himself to her and said her mother couldn't hear what was going on because herself and Frei were whispering. Keenan allegedly said she did not see or hear anything going on between her child and Frei while this alleged activity occurred.

In records from phone numbers registered to Frei and Keenan, both discussed what happened between Keenan's daughter and Frei. Frei apologized after admitting to touching her daughter inappropriately, according to the arrest affidavit. They then discussed an exchange of money. Frei stated that he didn't have any money to spare. Keenan advised Frei that he should take out a loan. Keenan stated in text messages that the money was to get help for her daughter after the incident.

Keenan then continued to ask Frei for varying amounts of money and encouraged him to attempt to obtain the money quickly, or else she will go to the police. At one point Keenan asked for $30,000 to buy a new vehicle, according to the arrest affidavit.

Frei does not have any criminal history, according to the arrest affidavit.

Frei admitted to touching the daughter, but at one point said that he didn't mean to. He also admitted to exposing himself in her presence, but said this occurred later, after the initial alleged illegal touching. Frei said when they were outside he urinated when he was about one car length away from the girl.

Keenan had advised Frei to delete his text messages, according to Frei. Keenan has previous criminal history involving fraud and a felony conviction.

Local law enforcement coordinated a controlled take down wherein Keenan was under the impression she would receive the rest of the extortion payment from Frei. Frei cooperated with law enforcement in this takedown. Both Frei and Keenan were arrested for their crimes. Both are scheduled for preliminary hearings in Cheyenne County court Oct. 8.

"We had really good cooperation between the local P.D. and the WING task force," said Cheyenne County Sheriff John Jenson.