Colorado Man Pleads Guilty to Enticing a Minor for Illicit Sex

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Colorado man pleaded guilty in federal court today to traveling to Kansas City, Mo., to meet an undercover FBI agent, whom he believed to be a mother with her 7-year-old daughter, for illicit sexual activity.

Ryan Edward Mausner, 42, of Basalt, Colo., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to the online enticement of a minor.

By pleading guilty today, Mausner admitted that from Jan. 31 to May 25, 2018, he induced, enticed, and coerced a child victim to engage in criminal sexual activity. Mausner was actually communicating (via the Kik messaging application and texts) with an undercover FBI agent, who portrayed a single mother with a 7-year-old daughter.

Mausner admitted that he engaged the undercover agent in several private chat sessions in which he said he wanted to engage in sexual activity with the mother and daughter. These discussions entailed descriptions of the 7-year-old girl and an insistence, on Mausner’s part, that the mother and 7-year-old would call him “Sir.” Mausner described, in explicit detail, the sorts of sexual activity that he intended to perform on the 7-year-old when they met.

Mausner began communicating plans to either travel to Kansas City, Mo., or arrange for the travel of the mother and her daughter to come to Colorado. Mausner traveled by plane from Denver, Colo., to Kansas City, Mo., on May 25, 2018, with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity with the child victim.

Under federal statutes, Mausner is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of life in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick D. Daly. It was investigated by the FBI.