Scott County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a Clark County man on Thursday, Aug. 15 at a residence in Austin where he thought he would be meeting a 13-year old girl. The intended encounter was a police sting operation which resulted in the arrest of Kenneth L. Snyder, 47, of Clark Road in Charlestown for child solicitation
According to Sheriff Jerry Goodin, the investigation began on Aug. 7, involved deputies with the Scott County Sheriff’s Office focusing on an alleged Clark County predator contacting who he thought was a young Scott County teenager. The communications became sexual in nature, the sheriff said.
According to the court probable cause affidavit, Scott County Sheriff’s Deputy Donovan McCutcheon who had completed training through the National Criminal justice Training Center for communication with child predators and is a member of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children task force, responded to an anonymous online inquiry seeking a relationship. Posing as a teenage girl named ‘Sierra’, the police officer responded.
Snyder and McCutcheon as undercover persona ‘Sierra’ texted one another multiple times daily over the next several days with the conversation being led by Snyder and becoming more graphically sexual in nature, according to the court document.
Snyder arranged to meet ‘Sierra’ at her ‘home’ on Broadway Street in Austin the night of Aug. 15 “when her mother would not be at home.” A female Austin Reserve Police officer was set up at the door in plain clothes as the undercover juvenile Sierra, the court document read.
As Snyder arrived at the home to meet with whom he thought was the juvenile, officers arrested him. He was booked in to Scott County Jail at 9:56 p.m. charged with child solicitation to engage in sexual intercourse, a level 4 felony.
He had an initial appearance before Scott Circuit Court Judge Jason Mount on Monday, Aug. 19. Mount sent Snyder’s bond at $65,000 full cash. As of the Times press deadline, Snyder remains incarcerated.