An American lawyer who has spent the last two and a half years in Cambodian prison for raping four children is now facing five federal charges in the US – after being deported back to the states earlier this month.
Rugh James Cline, 42, who is currently under house arrest in Tampa, faces 170 years in prison for his alleged crimes, including alleged payment for the 2019 rape of four minors in the Southeast Asian country.
According to the lawyer’s indictment, he arrived in Cambodia in May this year with a photo or video showing two Cambodian children engaged in sexual acts – before and after the multiple rapes of two minors under the age of 15.
The trip was the second in just a few months for the Florida lawyer, the first being in February – during which time prosecutors believe he either picked up media showing a child as young as “12 years old”. was.
The indictment alleges that Cline abused a total of four minors “multiple times” on both trips.
The evidence now being used in his trial was enough to convict Cline on five counts of unlawful sexual conduct abroad and one count of possession of child sexual abuse materials.
Currently under house arrest in Tampa, 42-year-old Rugh James Cline – pictured here after his Cambodian arrest in 2019 – faces 170 years in prison for his alleged crimes, which include payments prosecutors say for the rape of two children were accomplished at the age of 15 several times
Cline, shown here in his cell where he sat for two and a half years, was arraigned on those allegations back in 2021 and made his first appearance in U.S. federal court on June 7 in Tampa. At a hearing a week later, he was released on $100,000 bail and placed under house arrest pending his federal trial
Cline was arraigned on those allegations in 2021, two years after his arrest, and made his first appearance in US federal court on June 7 in Tampa.
A bail hearing was held less than three weeks later last Monday, at which the alleged pedophile was released on conditions of GPS surveillance, house arrest and a $100,000 signature bail.
Awaiting his upcoming federal trial sometime this year or next, Cline is also not allowed access to the internet or to minors while under house arrest, prosecutors said.
A statement by the United States Attorney’s Office in the Central District of Florida last Monday detailed some of the disgraced attorney’s alleged crimes.
“According to the indictment, Cline, a US citizen and Florida attorney residing in Tampa, traveled to Cambodia in February and May 2019,” the attorneys wrote.
“While in Cambodia, he paid for sexual activity with four minors on multiple occasions.”
‘[It] Cline also alleges that Cline traveled to Cambodia from the Central District of Florida knowingly possessing material depicting the sexual abuse of young children.
According to an NGO investigating suspected foreign pedophiles in Cambodia, the families of three accusers told police that Cline paid them a total of $120 for the “repeated” illegal acts.
A Cambodian court has already ordered Cline, who is still a lawyer but has lost the ability to practice due to late fees, to pay each of the girls, all under the age of 15, 15 million riels – about $3,750 – to pay compensation time.
According to an NGO investigating suspected foreign pedophiles in Cambodia, victims told police after the alleged assaults that Cline – seen here while still practicing in Florida – paid them a total of $120 for the alleged and illegal ones paid for the rendezvous
While awaiting his upcoming federal trial sometime this year or next, the deported Cline – who is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in Cambodia for sexually abusing three girls – is also barred from accessing the internet by minors
In addition to the reparation fees, Cline – who pleaded guilty to his crimes in a Cambodian court – was ordered to pay an additional one-time fee, which the court set at $200.
His upcoming trial in the US comes after years of investigations by agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which was aided by the State Department and Cambodia’s National Police, according to prosecutors’ press release Monday.
The case is now being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Ilyssa M. Spergel — with Cline this time opting to plead not guilty to all charges.
In the decision, the lawyer will fight allegations that he was caught with images of “sexually explicit conduct” in February 2019 involving an unnamed pre-adolescent child and another under 12 who were traveling with him to Cambodia.
The indictment further states that Cline “committed illicit sexual conduct” with two minors three times in February and then again each day on May 10 and 17, 2019.
After four years of deliberations and international cooperation, the case was finally brought as factors such as poverty and poor law enforcement have made Cambodia a de facto breeding ground for foreign pedophiles.
After four years of deliberations and international cooperation, the case was finally brought as factors such as poverty and poor law enforcement have made Cambodia a de facto breeding ground for foreign pedophiles
Anti-trafficking police forces are trying to crack down on the phenomenon, including the NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), whose director, Seila Samleang, was already celebrating Cline’s Cambodian detention when it was ordered in 2019.
“I welcome the verdict, however the crime of buying child prostitution should have been charged as the perpetrator took advantage of the victims and coerced them with money,” APLE CEO Seila Samleang said in a statement.
“It would have meant a longer prison sentence,” she added, condemning local laws that allowed Cline to skate free after just a few years.
An investigation released by the agency last year found that foreign tourists suspected of pedophilia continue to visit Cambodia to take advantage of weak law enforcement. Up to 102 cases were recorded in 2017 and 89 cases in 2018.
Lt. Gen. Chiv Phally, director of the Interior Ministry’s anti-trafficking police department, recently pledged that Cambodian police would increase cooperation with their overseas counterparts to crack down on the alleged crimes.
“We continue to work with relevant individuals to take action against these criminals and to protect children from them,” he said in 2019, shortly after Cline was charged.
Cline, meanwhile, faces five counts in federal court in Tampa of illegal sexual conduct abroad and possession of child exploitation materials. Until then, he remains under 24-hour house arrest
The penalty for buying child prostitution in the country is currently only a penalty of seven to 15 years if the child is under the age of 15.
At the time, Samleang also called on Cambodian authorities to deport foreign sex offenders after their sentences had expired, saying they could pose a danger to other local children.
Cline, meanwhile, faces five counts in federal court in Tampa of illegal sexual conduct abroad and possession of child exploitation materials. Until then, he remains under 24-hour house arrest.