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Former Boulder County deputy sentenced to 18 months in Internet child sex exploitation case
20 years of probation will follow term
By Pierrette J. Shields Longmont Times-Call
Posted:   11/27/2012 11:16:21 AM MST | Updated:   5 years ago



Ferguson
BOULDER -- A former Boulder County deputy wept as former co-workers cuffed him and led him out of the courtroom Tuesday morning after a Boulder District judge sentenced him to a short prison term and 20 years of intensively supervised sex offender probation on Internet child exploitation charges.
During the hearing, Rick Ferguson apologized to his former co-workers, family and community for his behavior, which included more than 900 sexually explicit online chats with people identified as girl as young as 11 years old. Boulder District Judge Thomas Mulvahill said more than 200 of those chats were conducted on Boulder County Sheriff's Office computers while Ferguson was on duty. Mulvahill said a prison term was a necessary component to the sentence.
"If you give me the benefit of the doubt I can change," Ferguson told the judge as he wept through some of his comments to the court before Mulvahill's decision.
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Mulvahill said he believed Ferguson was sincere and is making genuine effort in treatment.
"Do I think Mr. Ferguson can be safe in the community? I do. I think he can be safe in the community if he is appropriately structured and contained," Mulvahill said.
Ferguson pleaded guilty in August to felony sexual exploitation of a child, felony obscenity and official misconduct. Seven other charges were dismissed under the deal. Mulvahill sentenced Ferguson to 18 months in prison, with credit for 65 days served, and 20 years of intensively supervised sex offender probation, including a requirement that he have no contact with anyone younger than 18 until his treatment team determines that it is safe.
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Mulvahill said defense arguments that the charges against Ferguson were "a political decision to kick a cop while he is down" and that Ferguson has been punished more severely than others in his position because he was a police officer are unfounded.
"Law enforcement officers should be held to a higher standard," Mulvahill said, adding that the community must be able to trust law enforcement and that it was particularly aggravating for Ferguson's case that he conducted chats while working.
According to the sheriff's office, county information technology employees noticed unusual activity on the laptop in Ferguson's patrol car and uncovered the sexually explicit conversations. Further investigation revealed that the conversations were with people on the Internet who claimed to be young girls, according to reports. District attorney investigators and sheriff's investigators secured a search warrant for Ferguson's Lafayette home and seized his personal computers, which were also searched.
Mulvahill said that Ferguson's cooperation with investigators -- which included a confession -- his decision to seek treatment before conviction, progress he has made in treatment and his family's support were all mitigating circumstances. However, he said it was problematic that Ferguson had engaged in the behavior since the 1990s and did not seek help before he was caught.
Ferguson initially entered pleas of not guilty to the charges and was scheduled for a trial to begin Dec. 10. The plea spared him the trial and any lengthy prison time that could have come with multiple felony convictions.
Defense attorney Larry Mertes said Ferguson began struggling with a sexual addiction after he served as a detective on a case in the 1980s in which a murder victim had been dismembered and placed in a septic tank. Ferguson helped to retrieve the body parts, which he later learned belonged to a man who attended high school with him. Mertes said he suffered PTSD from the case and that therapy showed he treated the resulting numbness by seeking excitement in online sexual conquests.
Mertes said Ferguson decided to remain in the Broomfield County Jail for 65 days because he believed he needed to pay for his crimes and that he was "extremely proud" of Ferguson for working with investigations, accepting responsibility and seeking treatment.
Mulvahill said it was likely that Ferguson would spend "significantly less" time than 18 months in prison and that he must report immediately to probation upon his release.

[jameson245]

Colorado rape suspect has history in Bismarck

MIKE ALBRECHT, Bismarck Tribune
Jun 22, 2004

A 36-year-old man being held in a Colorado jail on multiple rape charges was 19 years old when he committed crimes in Bismarck.

Bradford Thomas Wagner was charged Friday with raping four women in a Boulder, Colo., apartment complex about 10 years ago. Two 1986 burglaries in Bismarck were near the top of Wagner's arrest record that consists of about a dozen arrests in at least six states.

The extensive criminal history and a long list of former addresses led investigators to Wagner, and his DNA linked him to the rapes.

DNA evidence taken from the Tantra Lake apartment complex in Boulder matched samples taken from rape scenes in Lakewood, Colo., and Austin, Texas. A search for men with addresses near the crime scenes in the three cities narrowed the list to Wagner.

The next step was to collect DNA samples from Wagner, who was working as a real estate agent in Glenwood Springs, Colo. An undercover officer posing as a potential client set up a meeting with Wagner at a Glenwood Springs brewery. As the two discussed a business deal over lunch, detectives collected DNA from Wagner's house door, car door, bike handle and a handshake.

The DNA matched samples taken from some of the crime scenes. Wagner didn't put up a fight when he was arrested at work June 11, Boulder police detective Chuck Heidel said.

A 10-page arrest warrant described in detail the attacks from 1993 to 1998. It also included first-hand accounts from the four victims who ranged in age from 30 to 48.

The women, whom Heidel described as petite with dark hair, told police at the time of the sexual assaults that their attacker entered their apartments through sliding glass doors late at night. All but one said they were in bed at the time and didn't wake up until the man had crawled on top of them.

Some of the victims said the man held a knife to their throats and others said he threatened to break their necks. He cut the clothes off one of the victims.

None of the women could describe the intruder well, because it was too dark. They all said he smelled of cigarette smoke. One of the victims said the man was wearing a stocking over his head and another said she noticed a sparse mustache when she was forced to kiss him.

Wagner is charged with eight counts of rape and two counts of violent crime and is being held in the Boulder County jail on a $1 million bond. If convicted, he could spend four years to life in prison. Wagner also is suspected of rapes in Lakewood and Austin, Boulder County Deputy District Attorney Ken Kupfner said.

Wagner grew up in Bismarck but didn't stay anywhere for long after that. He had Colorado addresses in Boulder, Lakewood, Denver and Steamboat Springs. He also lived in Texas and New Jersey.

Wagner was 19 when he burglarized the Kirkwood Motor Inn and the Bonanza Sirloin Pit. According to police reports, he was living on the outskirts of town at the time.

A police officer was responding to an alarm in June of 1986 when he spotted Wagner through the front window of Bonanza Sirloin Pit, now the North American Steak Buffet. Wagner was hiding in the ceiling when the officer got inside, but was later caught. He told police he hid out there until the restaurant closed and came out to steal money from the cash register.

About three months later a Bismarck Motor Hotel occupant found Wagner in his room hiding under a bed. Wagner had the man's shoes and a billfold that contained about $60. The police report said Wagner was a former employee of the hotel and had keys to the room.

Wagner pleaded guilty to the burglaries and a bail jumping charge. He skipped a court appearance in 1987, and was returned to Bismarck when authorities caught up with him in Texas. Wagner was sentenced to one year in prison and two years of probation.