Federal Grand Jury Indicts Louisville Man for Transporting Minors Across State Lines with Intent to Engage in Criminal Sexual Activity

Louisville, KY – A federal grand jury in Louisville, Kentucky, returned an indictment on June 21, 2023, charging a Louisville man with four counts of transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky and Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel of the Louisville Metro Police Department made the announcement. 

According to the indictment and a previously filed criminal complaint, during the late hours of May 7, 2023, going into May 8, 2023, Brian Anthony Sauer, 44, transported three minor girls who had run away from a residential care facility in Louisville, Kentucky, to Clarksville, Indiana, and subsequently engaged in sexual activity with the girls. Sauer ultimately drove all three girls to a trailer park in the southwest area of Jefferson County, Kentucky, where he left them on May 10, 2023.    

Sauer previously made his initial appearance before a U.S.  Magistrate Judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky and he was ordered detained pending trial. Sauer is scheduled for arraignment on June 23, 2023.

If convicted, Sauer faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and maximum potential penalties of life in prison, a $250,000.00 fine, and at least five years of supervised release. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. There is no parole in the federal system.

The Louisville Metro Police Department’s Crimes Against Children Unit is investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jo E. Lawless is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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