McCartney
A Brownsburg man will serve four years in prison on charges stemming from a child solicitation sting.
Benjamin Robert McCartney, 27, was convicted of child solicitation, a Level 4 felony and possession of methamphetamine, a Level 6 felony, on May 9. He was sentenced to four years in prison, followed by two years of probation by Johnson Superior Court 2 Judge Peter Nugent, according to a Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office news release.
McCartney was one of 32 men arrested as part of a child solicitation sting operation that ran from April 18 to April 20, 2023. Members of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, Franklin Police Department and the Edinburgh Police Department took part in the operation, according to the news release.
The operation took place at a property on the 300 block of E. County Line Road in Greenwood. Some men traveled from as far as Tennessee before being arrested by police.
The 32 men, whose ages ranged from 21 to 62, were arrested on charges ranging from child solicitation to making unlawful propositions to drug possession charges. Collectively, the men were arrested on 61 total charges, police said last year.
In McCartney’s case, prosecutors say he had solicited sexual acts from whom he believed to be a 14-year-old girl. It was actually undercover detectives.
Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner commended the work of law enforcement in finding “depraved individuals” who try to have sex with children, he said in the news release.
“I hope the years that this defendant serves in prison will serve as a warning to others with these perverted proclivities. The message we’re sending is this: If you don’t stay away from children, you’re going to spend years in a steel cage. Don’t even think about it,” Hamner said.
