Suburban Kansas City ex-cop indicted on federal charges of sexually exploiting teen
A disgraced Grain Valley police officer accused of sexually exploiting a 15-year-old is now facing federal charges, according to prosecutors.
The ex-cop, 27-year-old August P. Gildehaus, of Blue Springs, was arrested Thursday and made an initial appearance in Kansas City’s downtown federal courthouse. He was ordered held in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending a detention hearing set for next week.
The indictment comes roughly six months after Jackson County prosecutors first brought state charges of statutory rape and sodomy against Gildehaus. He was released from the Jackson County jail in April on a $20,000 bond and ordered to remain on a location monitoring program as one of the court’s conditions.
Gildehaus is now charged in federal court with enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, production of child pornography and possession of child pornography, according to the indictment unsealed Thursday.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri have since filed a motion seeking to have Gildehaus held in federal custody without bail, saying he poses a danger to the community, minors in particular, and is a flight risk.
Reached by phone Thursday, a defense attorney for Gildehaus declined to comment.
Police officers in Grain Valley were first called to investigate a report made by a 15-year-old’s parents that their child had been missing after 1 a.m. in March. She returned home later that morning and told police she had been engaged in a “sexual relationship” with a man she met on social media. Authorities later identified him as Gildehaus.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol was asked by Grain Valley Police Chief Ed Turner to handle the investigation. In April, the teenager was again interviewed and offered specific details of Gildehaus, describing a tattoo on his arm and pointing him out as an officer featured on the police department’s Facebook page.
During an April police interview, Gildehaus allegedly admitted to meeting with the teenager on four occasions, and recording sexual encounters in his truck, from the time they met in August 2022. He said they typically communicated through the social media apps Discord and Omegle through his laptop.
Shortly after the criminal charges were filed, Grain Valley officials announced Gildehaus was no longer employed by the city.
In September, a highway patrol investigator reviewed electronic files obtained through a search warrant for the social media application Discord. In them, prosecutors say the two talked about their “sexual relationship in a blunt and frank fashion.”
The basis for two of the charges filed against Gildehaus — production and possession of child pornography — concern a video that authorities say show the two engaged in a sexual act while parked in the driveway of his home.
Along with Gildehaus, the sexual exploitation investigation by the highway patrol has led to two other men charged with sex crimes involving the same 15-year-old.
In Clay County, 24-year-old Tryston Michael Hastings, of Kansas City, faces four felony charges of statutory rape and sodomy. Antoine Richardson, 24, of Leavenworth, is accused in Jackson County of statutory rape and possession of child sexual abuse images.
The Star’s Anna Spoerre contributed to this report.
