ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — A Colorado man who posed as an immigration official to enter families' homes and then sexually assault young girls and women was sentenced to several decades behind bars.
On Monday, an Arapahoe County judge sentenced Kenneth Dean Lee, 66, to four decades in prison after he assaulted a young child.
Lee pleaded guilty in that case to sex assault on a child, burglary and sexual exploitation of a child, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Gary Dawson said Lee targeted immigrant and refugee families who "had no idea they were letting a dangerous predator into their homes."
The charges from this case stemmed from Dec. 9, 2021. That day, officers with the Aurora Police Department responded to an apartment on N. Chester Street to investigate a suspicious incident.
According to police, a man — later identified as Lee — had knocked on the door, introduced himself as an immigration official, and walked into the apartment without permission. Two adults and a 7-year-old girl were in the residence.
Posing as the immigration official, Lee said he had to speak to the girl alone in her bedroom.
The other adults in the apartment later told police that the man and girl were in the room alone for about five minutes before the man left and drove off in an unmarked minivan. The daughter indicated to one of the adults that she had been sexually assaulted, according to the district attorney's office.
Based on surveillance footage from the apartment, a man who fit Lee's description was seen getting into a Dodge Grand Caravan. Police were able to identify the license plate to see that the car was registered to Lee, according to the district attorney's office.
At the time, Lee was known as a sexually violent predator and had a history of molesting children. He was on parole for a crime in 2010 that was very similar to the one from December 2021. Due to this, he was wearing a GPS ankle monitor, which confirmed he was at the Aurora apartment on Dec. 9, 2021, according to the district attorney's office.
Lee was arrested on Dec. 10, 2021.
He has a lengthy history of pretending to be an immigration official and then assaulting young girls and women.
In 2010, he went to the home of a Vietnamese family and told the family he needed to talk with their 9-year-old girl in her bedroom, where he sexually assaulted her, according to the district attorney's office.
A year later, he called the home of a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl and told her he was a doctor and needed to perform an exam on her. The girl told him to call back later, as her mother was asleep. Lee watched the home and when the mother woke up and left the house, Lee knocked on the front door and the girl let him in, according to the district attorney's office. He then assaulted her.
In a second crime filed under the same case, Lee also called the home of a 22-year-old Vietnamese woman and made up the same story, posing as an immigrant doctor. He also sexually assaulted her.
Lee was sentenced to these crimes on Nov. 26, 2014. He was released on parole in April 2020. During that parole hearing, he made a promise to never harm anybody else and "have no more victims."
Eighteen months later, he was arrested in connection with the Dec. 9, 2021 case.
While prior cases were not available, he claimed after his arrest in the most recent case that he was remorseful for what he had done to his victims dating back to the 1990s.
The Colorado State Parole Board declined an interview after his December 2021 arrest, but provided the following statement: “This is extremely gut-wrenching as this deranged individual preyed on vulnerable individuals - when this was reviewed by the board the individual was participating in offense specific treatment, had met the criteria required to be considered for parole, and medical professionals believed he was at low risk to society to reoffend. This case was considered on these merits in Dec. 2019, granted in January 2020 and had nothing to do with the pandemic.”
After Lee was sentenced to 40 years in prison, Chief Deputy DA Dawson said he can only hope this new sentence will keep Lee behind bars for the rest of his life.
