FBI Agent Is Charged With Child Molestation

The FBI announced Saturday that a veteran agent in its New York office, who served as director of a suburban soccer program for youngsters in his spare time, had been arrested on charges of child molestation.

A complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn charged Richard M. Taus, a 10-year bureau veteran, with transporting a minor in interstate commerce for the purpose of prostitution, threatening a witness and misusing government property. Taus was held without bail pending a hearing on Tuesday.

According to the complaint, Taus, 44, had sex with an 11-year-old boy and another youngster he met at age 9 and tried to adopt two years later. When FBI agents questioned Taus, the complaint added, he admitted having sexual contact with four other boys.

The complaint charged that Taus repeatedly threatened the first youngster with physical harm if he disclosed their relationship and told him he would return from jail and kill him if he talked.

Resigned After Arrest

Taus resigned from the FBI shortly before he was arrested at 3 a.m. in the bureau’s Manhattan field office. An FBI spokesman said the investigation was continuing and asked any parents who suspected their children might have had contact with Taus, a resident of Freeport, N.Y., to telephone the bureau. Taus spent his entire career in the New York field office.

The arrest followed a 7-month investigation, begun after a minister reported that in 1984 a 13-year-old boy asked a Sunday school teacher a number of questions about homosexual conduct. The minister told FBI agents that he had interviewed the boy’s aunt and mother and was aware the boy was spending time with Taus.

The complaint charged that the FBI agent spent large sums of money on the boy and took him on vacations to Florida.

When the boy was interviewed by the FBI in October, he told agents he first met Taus in 1982 when he enrolled in the soccer program. He said that Taus showed him special attention, spending a great deal of time with him and buying him many presents.

FBI agents said they learned that in 1987 Taus attempted to adopt a second youngster, who was approximately 11 years old. The complaint said that FBI agents had not interviewed the second boy because his therapist advised against it, but that the therapist confirmed to the boy’s mother that her son had been sexually assaulted.