A former FBI agent has been convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl while serving as an Alabama state trooper, and he could face more charges in Louisiana.
Christopher Bauer, 44, was found guilty of first-degree sodomy and sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12 on Friday after a week-long trial. He will be sentenced on August 1.
“Montgomery is a little safer today because of the hard work of my teammates at the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office,” Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey said after the verdict.
The same day, Louisiana state police notified The Associated Press that Bauer was wanted on similar offenses in Jefferson and St Tammany parishes and that the department will seek to extradite Bauer, who has been in an Alabama prison since his arrest in 2021.
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During the trial, the kid testified about the years of abuse she had suffered at the hands of Bauer, as well as her decision not to disclose the abuse due to fear.
Jurors also heard a recording of her interview with an investigator documenting the abuse, which came to light after the youngster informed a friend about Bauer and her parents reported the accusation to the school.
Bauer said on the witness stand that the girl lied about what transpired.
“If she says I did something to her, that’s a lie,” he claimed during cross-examination. The Alabama trooper first gained global notice in 2021, when he was detained in the state on child abuse accusations that were filed last week.
When the AP investigated his record, it revealed a string of serious sexual misconduct charges dating back to his employment as an FBI agent in the agency’s New Orleans office, allegations that did not prevent him from later joining the Alabama state police in 2019.
During his employment with the FBI, Bauer is accused of frequently sexually assaulting a coworker, including a rape at knifepoint. Bauer denied the charges and stated that his interactions with the woman were consensual.
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“It was a year of torture,” she told The Associated Press. “He would actually keep me up for days. I could not eat. I couldn’t sleep, and in six months, I dropped from 150 to 92 pounds. “I was literally dying from what he was doing to me.”
In 2018, Bauer lost his security clearance and was suspended without pay following an internal probe.
“He flat-out needed to lose his job, and he really should have been charged criminally,” said a federal official.
If Bauer had not been detained at the state level, federal agents planned to charge him.
Despite a cloud of suspicions at the FBI, Bauer was able to secure a job with the Alabama State Police the year after the internal probe.
The Associated Press discovered that as part of his hiring process, Bauer submitted a certificate, apparently from the FBI, verifying his decade of “creditable service,” a record that made him “eligible for rehire.” The agency then informed the AP that the paper was “not legitimate.”
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency stated in 2021 that it conducted a “full and thorough” inquiry into Bauer’s record and found no “derogatory comments” from previous employers.
Source: independent.co.uk