PRODUCER OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY SENTENCED TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT.

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana -- The following information was released by the Indianapolis Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation:

Rickie L. Rarey, 50, Bloomington, Indiana, was sentenced to life imprisonment today by U.S. District Judge Larry J. McKinney, following his guilty plea to two counts of child exploitation (production of child pornography). This case was the result of an investigation by the Bartholomew County Sheriff's Department, the Bartholomew County Prosecutor's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Indiana State Police.

In late April, 2009, a report was made to the Indiana Department of Children's Services (DCS) that Jane Doe 2, a minor female less than ten (10) years of age, had been molested by Rickie L. Rarey. At the time Rarey resided in Columbus, Indiana.

Shortly after the report to DCS, Jane Doe 2 and her sister, Jane Doe 1, a minor female also under ten (10) years of age, were interviewed by a Bartholomew County Sheriff's Department detective. Each child disclosed that she had been molested by Rarey, and that he had taken nude photos of them with a cell phone camera.

On May 5, 2009, a search warrant was executed by the Bartholomew County Sheriff's Department on Rarey's residence in Columbus, Indiana. A cell phone and laptop computer belonging to Rarey were seized. Rarey was interviewed and denied that he had either molested or taken nude photos of Jane Does 1 and 2.

In June 2009, an Indiana State Police (ISP) detective detailed to the FBI Cyber Crime Task Force, was requested to do a forensic examination of Rarey's laptop computer. The detective discovered numerous images depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a minor female readily identifiable as Jane Doe 1.

Armed with this new information, on July 1, 2009, Bartholomew County Sheriff's Department detectives re-interviewed Rarey at his new residence in Bloomington, Indiana. When confronted with the sexually explicit images recovered from his laptop, Rarey admitted to having taken the images on his cell phone camera and then transferring them to his laptop computer. Rarey also admitted to having touched Jane Doe 1 on her vagina on more than one occasion. Rarey was arrested at the scene and was ordered held in custody pending the disposition of his case.

Federal search warrants were obtained authorizing a search of Rarey's cell phones, as well as a memory card that was in his laptop computer when it was seized. Additional sexually explicit images of Jane Doe 1 were discovered, as well as images of her sister, Jane Doe 2, all of which were determined to have been produced by Rarey at his residence in Columbus, Indiana.

Because Rarey was previously convicted of three counts of Class C Felony child molestation in October 1993 in Bartholomew County, Indiana, federal sentencing law directs a life sentence for production, instead of the 15-30 year range otherwise provided.

Bartholomew County Prosecuting Attorney William Nash said, "This is a perfect example of how state and federal prosecutors can work together to maximize public safety while minimizing the risk of further trauma to child victims of sexual predators. In this case, there was no possibility of a life sentence under Indiana state law, and a successful state prosecution would have entailed subjecting the very young victims to the further trauma of testifying to the explicit details of the crimes in front of a room full of strangers and in the presence of the very man who had molested them." Nash continued, "When we learned that prosecution in U.S. District Court would likely result in a life sentence without the necessity of the victims' testimony, the decision to seek federal prosecution was an easy one to make. I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome of the case."

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Brant Cook, who prosecuted the case for the government, offenders who are sentenced to life imprisonment are not eligible for parole at any time.

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 United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (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.projectsafechildhood.gov.