Registered sex offender in Pocatello charged with child sex abuse

Editor’s note: This story contains details of a graphic nature. Reader discretion is advised.

POCATELLO — A Pocatello man police say touched and photographed a 15-year-old girl in sexually suggestive positions has been charged with multiple felonies.

Logan Khaide Gabriel Kniffen, 33, who spent five years in prison for sexually abusing a child in 2017, faces two counts of sexually abusing a child and one count of enticing a child over the internet, court records show.

Officers receive report

Pocatello police received a call reporting an “inappropriate relationship” between Kniffen and a 15-year-old girl on Feb. 1, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

After discovering Kniffen had given her daughter gifts, the caller looked him up on iCourts and discovered him to be a registered sex offender due to his pleading guilty to child sex abuse in 2017. Kniffen spent five years in prison for the crime.

The mother told police that she and the victim had known Kniffen for “a couple of months” when he offered to help her move. She said that shortly thereafter, she noticed Kniffen had given her daughter jewelry — a man’s wedding ring which was hung on a necklace.

She also learned, from one of her daughter’s friends, that Kniffen and the girl had kissed. The mother told officers Kniffen and her daughter had exchanged text messages — as shown in the girl’s phone bill — but the messages had been deleted.

When she asked Kniffen if he had been text messaging the girl, Kniffen told her he did not have the victim’s phone number, according to the mother.

The mother agreed to bring the jewelry and the victim’s phone to Pocatello Police Department. The phone was seized for forensic examination.

While there, the victim agreed to be interviewed. She said that she sent images to Kniffen at his request. Asked to describe the images, she showed them to the officer.

According to police reports, the images showed the victim in lingerie-style underwear posed in “a provocative manner.” The victim told officers the underwear was a gift from Kniffen.

She also told officers she had exchanged text messages with Kniffen, but the messages had been deleted.

Forensic interview

During a forensic interview, the victim said she and Kniffen spoke while he was helping her and her mother move. She said he asked her questions about whether she was sexually active and referred to her as “beautiful.”

When they parted, the victim said, Kniffen gave her a piece of paper with his phone number written on it. He told her to save the number in her phone under a name other than his, according to the affidavit. The victim gave police that note.

Shortly after the two began texting, the victim said, Kniffen began “begging” for pictures of the girl in sexually suggestive positions. She said Kniffen instructed her on how to pose for the pictures.

On one of the days when Kniffen was helping the victim and her mother move, he gave her the underwear and said he wanted to see her wearing them. She said she went into her bedroom to change and shut the door behind her, but Kniffen opened the door and followed her in.

The victim said she did not know what to do, so she changed in front of him. Kniffen, she said, took pictures of her while she was doing so, and, at one point, touched her thigh.

While she was changing, the victim said, Kniffen had her lie down on her bed then lay on top of her and pushed his pelvic area into her.

Collecting evidence

After the forensic interview, officers looked into Kniffen and learned that he had been arrested in Downtown Pocatello on an unrelated incident and was being held at Bannock County Jail. Officers went to the jail and seized his phone for forensic analysis.

On Feb. 8, officers spoke with the manager of the transitional housing unit where Kniffen had been living.

The manager told officers that he had recently learned Kniffen disclosed to another resident at the unit that he was involved in a relationship with a 15-year-old girl. Kniffen, the manager said, told the other resident that if he informed the police of that disclosure, Kniffen would kill the girl and her family.

Officers also spoke with Kniffen’s co-worker, who said that she was aware Kniffen had spent some amount of time with the victim. She said she thought “something was suspicious” about the relationship between Kniffen and the victim.

On March 15, detectives received results from the forensic analysis of Kniffen’s phone.

Among the files extracted were several photos of the vicim wearing the lingerie-styler underwear in different poses.

Additionally, detectives ran software on the phone identifying images of nudity and nudity potentially involving a child.

“The program had flagged 716 images of nudity and 502 images for suspected child sexually exploitative material,” the affidavit says.

Among those files, detectives noted 30 images that “stood out” as depicting what appeared to be “extremely young” females.

After reviewing the images and text message conversations between Kniffen and the victim, officers determined sufficient evidence existed supporting an arrest.

Kniffen is being held on a $100,000 bond.

Though Kniffen has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.

If he is found guilty, Kniffen would face up to 65 years in prison.

He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, April 16, for a preliminary hearing before Magistrate Judge Scott Axline.