(LIGONIER) - A Central Noble Community Schools employee has been placed on administrative leave after his weekend arrest on allegations of child solicitation.
Ligonier Police say 46-year-old Andrew Price faces a preliminary Level 4 felony count of child solicitation and a misdemeanor count of inappropriate communication with a child.
Investigators say Price allegedly believed he was communicating with a 13-year-old girl, but police say the messages were actually part of an undercover decoy operation that led to a planned Saturday meeting in Ligonier.
Instead of meeting a child, police say Price was met by officers and taken into custody.
Court documents indicate the decoy communication had allegedly been going on since December and that Price was attempting to arrange a sexual encounter.
Police say Price consented to a search of his phone, and investigators say the contents of the device, along with statements he made during questioning, established probable cause for the arrest.
School board records show Price had been hired in February as a bus mechanic.
Central Noble says the employee has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, and Superintendent Barry Younghans says the district is taking the matter seriously while continuing to cooperate with police.
Price was booked into the Noble County Jail. Formal charges are expected to be reviewed by the Noble County Prosecutor's Office.