A former FBI agent, fired from the Bureau amid a string of sexual assault and harassment charges but who later used forged documents to become a trooper with the Alabama State Police, is now charged with raping an 11-year-old girl in Alabama.

According to the Associated Press, 41-year-old Christopher Bauer was investigated by the FBI for multiple complaints of sexual harassment and assault, including one allegation that he raped a female coworker at knifepoint.  In 2018, he was stripped of his security clearance by the FBI’s New Orleans field office, effectively firing him.

Bauer then allegedly forged a letter from FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, citing his “credible service” and deemed him “eligible for rehire,” a term of art meaning that the individual was not dismissed due to any disciplinary issues.  Bauer also attested that he had not left the FBI–either fired or forced to leave–for disciplinary reasons.  The FBI told AP the letter is “not legitimate.”

Bauer was arrested in Montgomery last week in connection with an attack on the pre-teen girl and charged with crimes including sodomy and sexual abuse of a child under 12.  He is being held on $105,000 bail.

The episode calls into question the thoroughness of the screening process for law enforcement officers and the ability of those who had been dismissed for malfeasance to be hired by other law enforcement agencies.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the state agency that runs the state police, told AP that it conducted a “full and thorough” investigation into Bauer’s background when he applied to be a trooper in 2019 and that “no derogatory comments were uncovered by former employers.”  Before joining the FBI, Bauer had been a police officer in Montgomery.

It also calls into question the disciplinary practices within the FBI, who invested Bauer’s co-worker’s rape allegation but did not pursue legal action against Bauer.  They pulled Bauer’s security clearance and cited him for having sex in a Bureau vehicle, but apparently failed to provide evidence to local authorities to follow up on the unnamed victim’s criminal complaint.

The co-worker also filed a restraining order against Bauer a year before he was hired by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, something the agency either failed to uncover or ignored.

“Nobody wants to take responsibility,” the former co-worker who accused Bauer of rape told the AP. “I didn’t want this to happen to anybody else.”