Roaring Fork Valley man accused of seeking sex with girl to appear in federal court

Ryan Mausner, a Roaring Fork Valley man accused by the FBI of flying to Kansas City under the guise of having sex with a 7-year-old girl, is scheduled to be in federal court today in Missouri.

An FBI online covert employee, posing as a mother of two, engaged in months of online chats and then text messages with Mausner, 42, who lists a Missouri Heights address in Eagle County. The exchanges included “numerous sexually suggestive or overtly sexually explicit comments,” according to an affidavit filed May 25 in U.S. District Court in western Missouri.

He is facing one count of use of interstate facility to attempt to entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity. The Class A felony comes with a sentence of 10 years to life in prison.

Mausner was arrested May 25 by U.S. marshals in Kansas City after arriving on a flight from Denver. The hearing today is set in Judge Sarah W. Hays’ courtroom in the Western District of Missouri.

Two things are planned for the hearing. First is if Mausner, who is held without bond, will be available for bond or if the judge decides to keep him detained. The other issue expected to be discussed is if there is probable cause to move the case to the grand jury.

The issues the judge will examine on bond will be based on one or both concerns, according to a federal court clerk: Is Mausner a flight risk and/or is he a safety concern or danger to the community?

A search of public records in Colorado and Pennsylvania, where he was born, found two minor traffic offenses — one in Denver for driving an unsafe vehicle in 2001 and one in Pennsylvania for speeding in 2010.

According to Pitkin County records, Mausner previously was scheduled for an initial conference in divorce court June 15. After his arrest, Mausner’s wife filed a motion to restrict parenting, and that is set to be heard June 14 in Pitkin County.