Potential predators go south in Kentucky

Chris Hansen Correspondent • Profile

Bowling Green, Ky. - We're at it again, catching potential online sex predators in the act of attempting to meet young girls.

Elliott: I’ve had that fantasy in the back of my head.
Chris Hansen: About being with a young girl?
Elliott: A young girl, yes.

We're in a new state, in a new part of the country -- southwestern Kentucky. What's not new is the men's reaction to meeting who they think is a young girl.

Armstrong: I haven't had a kiss yet.

Elliott: Gosh, you're pretty.

West: Well, I’m going to give you a hug.

McPhetridge: I’d like to hold you.
Decoy: And then what?
McPhetridge: And kiss you. That's why I was asking you to come up here.

We're set up in this six-thousand square foot home in Bowling Green, Kentucky. We've outfitted the house with thirteen hidden cameras and seven are outside, capturing a potential predator as he drives into the development, up our street and into our driveway. Then five cameras inside pick up his every move as he walks in the door.

Todd West: You have a nice place here.
Decoy: Thank you.

In the basement are our paid consultants -- members of the online watchdog group Perverted Justice. Its volunteers set up profiles of 12- or 13-year-olds, go into chat rooms, and wait to be contacted. If a man starts chatting, expresses a desire for sex and is willing to meet, the decoy then invites the man over.

For this operation, Perverted Justice has teamed up with the Kentucky attorney general's office and the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation (KBI), as well as local law enforcement.

Frag (Perverted Justice): Most of these guys are going to be coming off 65 in one direction or another.

Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo has worked with Perverted Justice during two prior sting operations without Dateline being present.

Chris Hansen: Were you anxious at all about having Perverted Justice, a civilian group, do the decoy work in these cases?
Greg Stumbo: Just the name Perverted Justice sort of raises some red flags.

So Stumbo says his office did a thorough background check on Perverted Justice.

Stumbo: All we saw were positive things. We didn't see anything negative. Law enforcement is not equipped to conduct these types of operations at this point. And so to us it was just a natural fit.

During the first attorney general sting in Louisville about a year ago, seven men were arrested. All were convicted of a felony.

During the second sting last April -- again with Dateline not present –- 11 men arrived at this house in northern Kentucky.

And all 11 were arrested.

One man has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. The other 10 have pleaded guilty. Stumbo says one of those men stands out the most.

Cop: What's your name sir?
Rauch: Jim Rauch. R-a-u-c-h.

Video   'Stay away' What is Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo's message is to potential predators? Dateline NBC

He was a teacher.

Cop: What do you do Jim?
Rauch: I work for the University of Cincinnati.

Greg Stumbo: He was a well-respected citizen in his community. A member of a church. Had a lot of people in the community who supported him, who couldn't believe that he would engage in this type of conduct.

He's 59-year-old James Rauch, a retired elementary school music teacher and a criminal justice professor for a university. He's interrogated by agents from the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation.

Tom Mitchkey: Do you know how old Cheyenne was?
James Rauch: She told me she was 13. But I don't do that … 13-year-olds, I’m-- God, it's gross.
Tom Mitchkey: Not your thing?
James Rauch: No, not at all.

That's what he starts off saying but later seems to change his story.

James Rauch: I came here to be for her possibly sexually too. But I don't know if I could ever have done that.

He also admits he invited the decoy to see photos of his genitals from his webcam.

Katherine Reed: More of an education for her?
James Rauch: I think so. I think so.
Tom Mitchkey: Exploratory.
James Rauch: This is-- this is what a guy looks like.

He ends up pleading guilty and is sentenced to 46 months in prison, followed by lifetime supervision.

Decoy: Hey!

So what will happen this time when Dateline is present? It seems some potential predators are getting the message. KBI commissioner David James says chat rooms are filled with men afraid to show up.

James: Once they found out that the girl was in Kentucky, that we're not going to come to Kentucky, because they-- that's where they arrest people for doing this.

But as always that doesn't stop everyone.

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