An Alabama court convicted a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent of sexually abusing a girl for six years, according to prosecutors.
The court — sitting in Montgomery County — convicted Christopher Bauer, 44, “of Sodomy in the First Degree and Sexual Abuse of a Child Less Than 12,” Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey announced Friday via a statement.
The Montgomery Police Department arrested Bauer after a report of the abuse reached the administrators of the victim’s school, Bailey’s statement revealed. The victim reportedly confided in a female friend Apr.23, 2021 — when the victim was 11 — that Bauer had been molesting her since when she was five years old. The friend reported to her own mother, who then alerted the school administrators. The administrators in turn reported to the police, who then arrested and charged Bauer, according to the statement.
Bauer was a state trooper with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) when the abuse occurred, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The victim reportedly testified through tears before the court but Bauer told the court the girl’s testimony was “a lie.”
Bauer was kicked out of the FBI in New Orleans, Louisiana over sexual misconduct allegations but became a trooper using a forged letter purportedly from the FBI, according to Bailey’s statement.
The AP published an investigative report on the forgery and sexual misconduct allegations. The AP also published a copy of the letter, which Bauer reportedly used when he applied for the job in 2019. The letter indicated that Bauer was “eligible for rehire”.
The FBI reportedly disavowed the letter as “not legitimate”. (RELATED: FBI Accused Of Pulling Agents Off Child Sex Abuse Cases To Investigate Jan. 6)
Christopher Bauer, 44, was found guilty of first-degree sodomy and sexual abuse of a child under 12.https://t.co/XhR3Egovp7
— KRCG 13 (@KRCG13) June 15, 2024
The AP’s investigative report revealed that Bauer had allegedly raped a fellow FBI worker at knifepoint — choking her, and assaulting her so often that her hair began to fall out.
“It was a year of torture,” the co-worker reportedly said. “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.”
Bauer, however, reportedly protested that his acts were consensual. The FBI regarded the misconduct case as “egregious” and found out that Bauer also had had sex in an FBI vehicle, according to the AP’s report.
The FBI investigators also believed the truth about Bauer’s dealings with female co-workers was “somewhere in the middle” according to the AP’s report. They found Bauer guilty of violating the bureau’s policy.
The restraining order that the co-worker reportedly obtained — in which Bauer was ordered to surrender his “firearms, weapons, swords and knives” — was in the public domain at the time Bauer became a trooper, the AP reported.
“I couldn’t see any more and felt my legs go out from under me,” the woman reportedly alleged in her application for the order. “He told me many times if I went to war with him I would lose. He told me many times he would destroy me.”
However, the ALEA reportedly told The AP that it did a “full and thorough” background check and that “no derogatory comments were uncovered by former employers” of Bauer.
Bauer is an Air Force veteran and had worked with the Montgomery police before becoming an FBI agent in 2009, according to the AP.
Scheduled for sentencing in the child sex abuse case August 1, Bauer faces 20 years to life in prison, with prosecutors favoring life imprisonment, Bailey’s statement revealed.
Louisiana state police intend to extradite Bauer from Alabama over separate child sexual abuse allegations outside New Orleans, the AP reported.
“Nobody is above the law, including our police officers,” Bailey said in part, via the statement. “Christopher Bauer is a sexual predator and has now been convicted as a sexual predator. He needs to be removed from our streets forever.”
