Maryville Man Sentenced To 10 Years For Attempted Enticement

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - On March 18, 2026, Ryan Patrick Garrett, 41, of Maryville, TN, was sentenced to 120 months imprisonment by the Honorable Katherine A. Crytzer, United States District Judge, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. Following his imprisonment, Garrett will be on supervised release for 30 years and will be required to register with state sex offender registries and comply with special sex offender conditions.

As part of the plea agreement filed with the court, Garrett agreed to plead guilty to an indictment charging him with one count of attempted enticement in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b).

According to filed court documents, on March 13, 2025, detectives with the Knoxville Police Department (KPD) and agents of the United States Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested 41-year-old Ryan Patrick Garrett on a federal complaint of Enticement of a minor for the purposes of an illegal sexual act. Garrett was arrested after an investigation conducted by the Tennessee Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force revealed that Garrett was making plans to meet at a location in Knoxville to engage in sexual activities with a nine-year-old and twelve-year-old. KPD Detectives and HSI Special Agents took Garrett into custody after he arrived to meet the children.

U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III of the Eastern District of Tennessee made the announcement.

The arrest and criminal indictment was the result of an investigation by KPD, the lead agency of the Tennessee ICAC Task Force which is a partnership of 74 state and local law enforcement agencies. The TN ICAC Task Force operates under a grant from the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The investigation was led by HSI KPD ICAC Task Force Officer Tom Evans.

Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Kolman represented the United States.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006, by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney's Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.

For more information about PSC, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc/resources.html and click the tab "resources."

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