Former Cop Candidate Pleads Guilty in Connection to Fairfield Sexual Predator Sting Operation

Stratford’s Stephen Buchanan, 27, faces up to three years in prison after pleading guilty to charges in connection to last October’s sexual predator sting operation in Fairfield, according to the Connecticut Post.

The Post reports Buchanan, who was on the list to become a Stratford police officer and was a member of the Connecticut National Guard at the time of his arrest, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 1.

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Buchanan was one of 10 men, from ages 19 to 64, arrested in the four-day operation that was carried out by former “To Catch a Predator” personality Chris Hansen in cooperation with the Fairfield Police Department and the State’s Attorney’s Office.

In the sting operation, the men went to a Fairfield house to meet up with someone they believed was either a 13-year-old boy or a 12-year-old girl they had been communicating with via the Internet and text messages.

Authorities said that when Buchanan was taken into custody at the decoy home, police found a loaded gun, a roll of duct tape and a knife in a bag in his car, according to the Post.

Read more at the Connecticut Post here.