[chris]

James Clifford Rauch, 59, pleaded guilty in federal court and received 46 months in prison after traveling from Ohio to a 2007 internet sting house in Highland Heights, Kentucky, intending to have sex with someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl. There was no child.

Rauch lived in the Cincinnati, Ohio area and was a retired elementary school music teacher. At the time of his arrest, he worked in technical support for the University of Cincinnati's College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services, supporting its distance learning graduate program in criminal justice. One television account instead described him as a criminal justice professor at a university. Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo called him a well respected citizen, a church member with substantial community support. The university suspended him with pay pending the investigation.

The Kentucky Attorney General's office and the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation operated the sting in spring 2007 with decoys supplied by the volunteer group Perverted Justice, which also supplied decoys for To Catch a Predator. Rauch first contacted a volunteer posing as a 13-year-old girl on April 1, 2007, describing himself as "male, 50s, horny." Perverted Justice founder Xavier Von Erck said Rauch "was sexual right off the bat" and stayed "consistently graphic in several conversations." Rauch at one point invited the decoy to view images of his genitals over his webcam.

After receiving the Highland Heights address, Rauch drove there and was arrested by Campbell County police on April 13, 2007. Ten other men, ages 24 to 59, were arrested in the same operation, including one who traveled more than 200 miles. Investigators identified Rauch through chat logs he produced himself and his arrival at the address.

Kentucky charged Rauch with one count of attempted unlawful transaction with a minor, a Class B felony carrying 10 to 20 years, and set bond at $100,000. Police interviewed him after the arrest in 2007. The interviewing officer is identified in the upload only as a female detective named Reed, and the contents of the interview have not been independently documented.

Because Rauch crossed a state line, the case went to federal court. A federal grand jury indicted him and six other men from the sting on June 14, 2007, on a charge of traveling across state lines intending to have sex with someone they believed was 13. The charge carried up to 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The FBI, Kentucky Bureau of Investigation, Campbell County Police and Highland Heights Police Department conducted the joint investigation.

Rauch pleaded guilty in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky at Covington to traveling in interstate commerce with intent to engage in sexual conduct with a minor. He was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison, followed by lifetime supervision, and was required to register as a sex offender. Chris Hansen reported the plea and sentence on December 28, 2007, placing the sentencing on or before that date. The exact plea and sentencing dates in United States v. Rauch, 2:07-cr-00047, have not been publicly established. The outcome of the Kentucky charge and any developments after 2007 have not been publicly reported.

The roughly 127-minute video is the police interview-room recording made after Rauch's arrest. It contains the interview itself, without narration or a presenter.