LOS ANGELES – A former contractor at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center was arrested Wednesday on federal charges alleging he targeted seven women with online threats to publish nude photos unless they provided him with additional explicit pictures.
Richard Gregory Bauer was arrested without incident at his home by special agents with NASA’s Office of Inspector General, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Bauer, 28, faces charges contained in a 14-count indictment returned by a Los Angeles federal grand jury on Aug. 28. The indictment charges Bauer with stalking, unauthorized access to a protected computer, and aggravated identity theft.
The indictment alleges that over the past several years, Bauer, who until recently lived in the Antelope Valley, harassed the victims on Facebook and through emails.
In emails to six women — in which he used aliases including “Steve Smith,” “John Smith” and “Garret” — Bauer sent the victims previously obtained nude photos of themselves, claimed to have additional photos, and threatened to post the photos online unless the women sent him new photos in various stages of undress, federal prosecutors allege.
Bauer is also charged with unauthorized access to computers and accounts owned by victims. During the course of the alleged stalking, Bauer, using his true identity, contacted some victims on Facebook and posed a series of questions, purportedly as part of a project he was working on for his “human societies class,” the indictment alleges.
Some of the questions included typical questions used to reset online passwords, such as the name of your first pet or the city where your parents met. In other instances, again using his true identity, Bauer allegedly convinced victims to install malware by claiming that he needed their help in testing software he claimed to have written, according to prosecutors.
The malware gave Bauer unauthorized access to the computers, and allowed him, among other things, to capture from the victims’ computers passwords for web sites and email accounts, the indictment alleges.
On at least two instances, Bauer is alleged to have used logins and passwords belonging to victims to log on to their Facebook and Google email accounts.
If convicted of the 14 charges in the indictment, Bauer would face up to 64 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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David G says
This POS should get whacked
AV supporter says
This low-life Section 8 welfare receiving scum glad he does not live in our Valley no more this sex offender need to move back to Wyoming that’s what people on this board say every time they hear something about African-American or Latino
Serena says
What this guy did was despicable and awful! He is now feeling the full force of the law come down on him.
The difference here is, you don’t see a bunch of engineers, a bunch of white people and a bunch of NASA workers coming on here to defend him and say “what a good boy” he was, or that “he was someone’s son/brother/uncle/daddy/grandpa” or a “child of God”. We all accept that he was a POS and deserved what he had coming to him.
Every time some Section_8 POS does something, its like an endless parade of “he was such a good boy” and “he was a child of God” and all of the other BS you guys like to say when one of your own is held accountable.
Alexis says
What you don’t understand is, he is a sexual predator that happens to be a former contractor at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. It doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor, Democrat or Republican, or what color you are. Not every section 8 abuses the system,, so it is clear to me that you place groups of people together with your own stunted mind-set, being programmed by a certain influence that robs you of an ability to see the truth.
Alexis says
You remind me of Alex Jones.
John C says
Then entire AV should be sponsored by Infowars.
John C says
I think people in the AV are more offended he was getting Section 8, than his actual crimes. Just last month you all were defending a child porn suspect who killed himself and were blaming the FBI. If they Hate the poor, but love child porn it must be the Antelope Valley. Keep it Classy AV.
Alexis says
I know.