Local man charged with enticing teen for sex

Jeffrey Rathsack

Ada County Sheriff's detectives arrested a Mountain Home man during a sting operation in Boise on Jan. 13.

Jeffrey A. Rathsack, 41, stands charged with enticing children over the internet.

Rathsack is a master sergeant assigned to the 366th Maintenance Operations Squadron at Mountain Home Air Force Base, according to a base spokesman.

The arrest was part of an ongoing effort by the Ada County Sheriff's Office to identify and apprehend people soliciting children and teens for sex online, according to Andrea Dearden, public information officer with the sheriff's department.

"He came to us, and we established contact with him," Dearden said.

Following this initial contact, an investigator posing as a 15-year-old girl used the internet to maintain regular contact with Rathsack over the next three months. The department waited to see if he would try arranging a face-to-face meeting.

According to a press release from the Ada County Sheriff's office, Rathsack spoke about his intent to have sexual contact with the girl and arranged to meet her a public location at a park in Boise. He arrived at the location around 6 p.m. that afternoon, and detectives immediately took him into custody.

Rathsack was booked into the Ada County Jail and arraigned on the charge in district court Jan. 14. A preliminary hearing could following within the next 14 to 21 days, according to Casey Hemmer from the Ada County Prosecutor's Office. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.

Because he used the internet to allegedly commit the crime, it's possible his case could get transferred to the U.S. Attorney's Office, according to Hemmer.

The arrest is the result of work by the Internet Crimes Against Children, or ICAC, Task Force. The Ada County Sheriff's Office receives ICAC grant money to help fund these investigations, which it conducts on an ongoing basis.

Last week's capture comes two weeks after another military member from Mountain Home Air Force Base was sentenced in District Court for sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of video voyeurism. Patrick E. McAvoy, a master sergeant with the 366th Maintenance Group, faces up to 18 years in prison following initial sentencing Dec. 29.

Meanwhile, a Grand View man was sentenced Jan. 4 to seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty of child pornography. Benjamin A. Burnett, 32, of Grand View, admitted to using the internet to downloading sexually explicit images of minors.

Burnett's arrest followed an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, which became suspicious that Burnett used his Yahoo e-mail account to receive the illegal images.