A 53-year-old Blue Springs, Missouri man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for driving to Kansas to meet someone he believed was a 14-year-old girl, only to find federal agents waiting instead. James D. Fishbaugh pleaded guilty before the sentencing to using the internet to arrange what he thought would be a sexual encounter with a minor.
According to court documents cited by the United States Department of Justice, District of Kansas, Fishbaugh had been messaging someone he believed was a 14-year-old girl in Kansas. He was actually communicating with an undercover FBI agent the entire time, prosecutors said.
Court documents indicate Fishbaugh drove from his home in Missouri to a designated meeting place in Kansas to follow through on the plan, according to the same DOJ account. FBI agents were waiting when he arrived, and he was arrested on the spot. Investigators reported finding condoms in his possession at the time, per the court documents referenced by the Justice Department.
Guilty Plea Came Months Before Sentencing
Fishbaugh pleaded guilty on August 5, as reported by the FBI, Kansas City Field Office, to one count of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. He has now been sentenced to seven years in prison for the offense, according to KCTV.
U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser said the FBI's proactive investigative work stopped Fishbaugh before any child could be victimized, per KCTV's reporting. He added that protecting children from sexual exploitation remains one of the office's highest priorities.
Prosecutor Describes Steps Taken to Carry Out the Plan
Kriegshauser said Fishbaugh pursued what he believed was a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old child and took substantial steps to carry it out, according to the same KCTV account. The case was built around an undercover operation in which the person Fishbaugh believed to be a minor was in fact an FBI agent posing online.
The sentence closes out a case that began with an online conversation and ended with Fishbaugh's arrest at the meeting site itself. No further details of the underlying investigation have been made public beyond the court documents cited by federal officials.
