Alabama Man Found Guilty of Aggravated Sexual Abuse of a Child

A federal jury convicted Rick Lee Evans, 43, of Anniston, Alabama, today of aggravated sexual abuse of a child after a five-day trial, Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance of the Northern District of Alabama announced. 

According to evidence introduced at trial, Evans, a former U.S. Army soldier, and his then-wife, a Department of Defense employee, were residing in Germany when they were asked to take temporary custody of a five-year-old child whose parents were deployed to Iraq with the U.S. Army.  Evans sexually abused the child on multiple occasions during the 18 months that the child lived with him from May 2007 to December 2008. 

Trial Attorney Austin M. Berry of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Hutzell of the Northern District of Alabama are prosecuting the case.  U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division and the FBI’s Birmingham, Alabama, Division investigated the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.