{"id":441055,"date":"2026-09-19T13:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T13:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/441055\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T13:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T13:08:16","slug":"former-houston-rodeo-lawyer-pleads-guilty-to-soliciting-minor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/441055\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Houston Rodeo lawyer pleads guilty to soliciting minor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">HOUSTON &#8211; A former Houston Rodeo staff member has been placed on probation after records say he pleaded guilty to online solicitation of a minor.<\/p>\n<p>   Former Houston Rodeo lawyer pleads guilty to soliciting minor <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Records show that 48-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/news\/jeffrey-downing-general-counsel-houston-rodeo-accused-sending-explicit-images-minor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Jeffrey Downing<\/a> pleaded guilty to the charge on Thursday. He has been sentenced to five years of &#8220;Deferred Adjudication Community Supervision.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">While under supervision, records say Downing has to register as a sex offender for 10 years. His registration process was set to start on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/jeff-downing-horizontal.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" width=\"932\" height=\"524\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Downing was the General Counsel for RodeoHouston.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">According to previous reports, in April 2024, Downing began talking to an undercover official who was posing online as a 15-year-old girl. He reportedly sent explicit photos to the &#8220;minor&#8221; and asked her for photos.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">PREVIOUS: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/news\/jeffrey-downing-general-counsel-houston-rodeo-accused-sending-explicit-images-minor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">General Counsel for Houston Rodeo accused of sending explicit images to minor<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Previous FOX 26 reporting and records from the Harris County District Clerk&#8217;s Office<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/us\/tx\/houston\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/top-stories\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Top Stories<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/us\/tx\/harris-county\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Harris County<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON &#8211; A former Houston Rodeo staff member has been placed on probation after records say he pleaded&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1046,405,56,58,57,223,2053,216,393],"class_list":["post-441055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-harris-county","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}