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A former FBI agent has been convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl while serving as an Alabama state trooper, and could soon face more charges in Louisiana.
Christopher Bauer, 44, was found guilty on Friday of first-degree sodomy and sexual abuse of a child under 12, following a weeklong trial. He will face sentencing 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 following the verdict.
The same day, Louisiana state police told The Associated Press that Bauer was wanted on similar charges in Jefferson and St Tammany parishes and that the agency would seek to extradite Bauer, who has been in Alabama prison since his arrest in 2021.
During the trial, the child testified about years of abuse she endured at the hands of Bauer, as well as her decision not to report the abuse out of fear.
Jurors also heard a recording of her interview detailing the abuse to an investigator, who learned about the case after the teen told a friend about Bauer and her parents reported the allegation to the girl’s school.
On the stand, Bauer claimed the girl was lying about what happened.
“If she said I did something to her, then yes that’s a lie,” he said on cross-examination.
The Alabama trooper first came to national attention in 2021, when he was arrested in the state on the child abuse charges that were carried out last week.
When the AP looked into his background, it discovered a string of concerning sexual misconduct allegations dating back to his time as an FBI agent in the agency’s New Orleans office, allegations that didn’t stop him from later getting a job with the Alabama state police in 2019.
During his time with the FBI, Bauer allegedly repeatedly sexually assaulted a coworker, including a rape at knifepoint. Bauer dispute the allegations and claimed his conduct with the woman was consensual.
“It was a year of torture,” she told the AP. “He quite literally would keep me awake for days. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep, and in six months I went from 150 pounds to 92 pounds. I was physically dying from what he was doing to me.”
Amid an internal investigation, Bauer was stripped of his security clearance and suspended without pay in 2018.
“He flat-out needed to lose his job, and he really should have been charged criminally,” a federal official told the outlet.
Federal authorities were reportedly prepared to bring charges against Bauer had he not been arrested at the state level.
Despite a cloud of allegations at the FBI, Bauer managed to get a job with the Alabama state police the year after the internal investigation.
The AP found that as part of his hiring process, Bauer submitted a document, purportedly from the FBI, affirming his decade of “creditable service,” a record that made him “eligible for rehire.” The agency later told the AP the document was “not legitimate.”
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said in 2021 it did a “full and thorough” investigation into Bauer’s background and didn’t find any “derogatory comments” from past employers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: independent.co.uk
