BURLINGTON, Ky. — A Northern Kentucky man thought he was meeting an 8-year-old boy at a hotel to solicit sex, but when he arrived, undercover deputies were waiting for him.
The Boone County Sheriff's Office said a grand jury indicted Paul Stratton, 53, of Dry Ridge on Feb. 27 on seven counts, including promoting human trafficking of a victim under 18 and possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor victim under 12, among others.
Stratton pleaded not guilty to the charges Wednesday in court. He's currently being held at the Boone County Jail on a $500,000 bond.
According to court documents, Stratton was arrested on Jan. 10 at a hotel in Walton as the Boone County Sheriff's Office Crime Suppresion Unit conducted an undercover operation.
Most of the CSU's cases pertain to prostitution stings, Maj. Philip Ridgell told WCPO 9.
Stratton responded to a profile set up by one of the undercover deputies on the app Grindr. While the deputy was posing as an adult, they were also promoting a young boy, according to court documents.
"In this case, the sting was our undercover acting as an adult and chatting with another adult and that’s when the mention of the child came up between them," Ridgell said. "Obviously, there was not a real child at play here."
Stratton began sending sexually explicit messages with deputies, the uniform citation reads. He then arrived at the hotel where undercover deputies took him into custody.
Stratton will be in court next on April 3.
A previous version of this article erroneously stated that Stratton pleaded guilty to the charges.
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