Local Cops Helped in Rasmussen Arrest

Kelly Rasmussen was arrested Tuesday by officers with Intercept, a multi-agency team working to prevent child exploitation. The case is getting a lot of attention because of his prominence in the community, but officers from Southern Oregon's High Tech Crimes Task Force, who assisted Intercept, say cases like this are a growing epidemic here and around the world.

"I would say about 80 to 90-percent of the types of cases that we work here in our task force are sex offense related or sexual predator related," says Sgt. Josh Moulin, Task Force Commander.

Sgt. Moulin and his team are constantly busy trying to keep up with sexual predators online.

"Whether it's somebody that's using MySpace to try and contact children or chat programs or people that are exchanging or possessing child pornography, it's a large part of what we do unfortunately," he says.

Sometimes these investigators wander undercover through online chat rooms posing as young boys or girls.

"The fad of chat rooms has never really gone out of style. There are thousands and thousand of chat rooms," he says.

The task force is trained to legally engage in conversation with potential predators while remaining uncover.

"There's certain things that you can and can not do as a law enforcement officer to keep things legal and we're trained exactly where those boundaries are," he says.

Kelly Rasmussen's arrest has stunned the community. He was a volunteer announcer at North and South Medford High Schools' football and basketball games, and leader in religious youth groups.

Moulin says that's not uncommon in his investigations.

"People who have a propensity to commit crimes against children will typically find ways to be around children," he says. "I'm not saying that's the case in Mr. Rasmussen's case, but just as a (mode of operation) for someone involved in these things it is common to see that they will do activities like that."

Sgt. Moulin says there were communications between Rasmussen and the undercover officers in Portland, but he couldn't see if they were emails, instant messages or chat room conversations.

Rasmussen was a board-member of a Christian youth group for several years but left more than a year ago. Table Rock Sports, the company that broadcasts high school athletics, says he won't be involved in games until further notice.