A former Auburn University Public Safety lieutenant’s case will head to a grand jury after a judge ruled Feb. 9 in a preliminary hearing that there is enough evidence and probable cause in the case.
Former lieutenant Dennis Rae Ledbetter, 46, was arrested in early December on three felony warrants charging him with possession of child pornography, according to court documents.
Ledbetter, who was a contract instructor for a women’s self-defense class in addition to his position at University Public Safety, became the subject of an Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and Auburn Police Division investigation.
Agents discovered that someone downloaded more than 800 images of child pornography on a University campus computer, according to court documents.
The files were downloaded between Oct. 20 and Oct. 21 of last year. The Office of Information Technology on campus was able to isolate the IP address of the offending computer, which belonged to Ledbetter.
Police later confirmed the IP match.
ALEA’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force contacted the Auburn Police Division about the downloaded images on Nov. 30. Ledbetter was arrested a few days later on Dec. 2 and charged.
After police obtained permission from the University to search his computer, they found 868 files, but they had been deleted. The files were downloaded through a peer-to-peer file-sharing program, according to police.
After being questioned by police, Ledbetter told detectives where seven flash drives were in his backpack on campus. He said the items on the flash drives would be of interest for evidence, according to police. On the thumb drives, police found more than 5,500 containing suspected child porn along with 111 videos.
Ledbetter admitted to possessing the child pornography in a rights-advised statement to police, according to the documents.
The University immediately placed Ledbetter on leave upon notification of his arrest, according to a statement from Mike Clardy, interim assistant vice president for communications and marketing, sent to The Plainsman in December.
“Auburn University officials were notified by the Auburn Police Division of an investigation Wednesday and began providing all requested information,” the statement read. “Upon notification of an arrest, the University immediately placed Mr. Ledbetter on administrative leave. The University is continuing to work with police.”
Lee County District Judge Russell Bush agreed to send the case to a grand jury Feb. 9 after finding probable cause from preliminary evidence and testimony presented by police. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also confirmed, according to police, that many of the images contained known child victims.
According to the University’s website in December, Ledbetter taught a popular self-defense class focused on teaching the Rape Aggression Defense System, or RAD. He is no longer listed as an Auburn University employee.
Elizabeth Blessing, senior in accounting, took Ledbetter’s self-defense class during the spring 2016 semester.
“It was one of the most applicable classes that I’ve ever taken at Auburn in terms of dangerous situations you could find yourself in,” Blessing said. “Mr. Ledbetter was completely professional in his instruction. He was always very proper in explaining and demonstrating defense moves.”
She saw no visible signs that he would do something like download child pornography.
“I gave him extremely high marks on his evaluation,” Blessing said. “I thought he and the other officers did a great job. This is a complete surprise to hear that he would be involved in something like that.”
Ledbetter, whose case could go to a grand jury in the spring, did not attend the hearing, according to multiple reports. Ledbetter remains out of jail on a $90,000 bond.
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