A 53-year-old Ball State University employee resigned three days after being arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex from an officer posing as a 13-year-old girl on the Internet, according to the Carmel Police Department.
According to a Hamilton County court affidavit, Richard Turgeon, former senior information analyst for the Office of the Controller and Business Services, admitted to police he had sexually explicit conversations over the Internet and on the phone and masturbated in front of his Web cam for an undercover officer, who was posing as a 13-year-old girl.
Detective John Pirics of the Carmel Police Department, posing as the young girl, started chatting online with a person using the screen name styxfan5500, who identified himself as Rich, according to the affidavit. The two chatted online seven times from July 15 to Sept. 8, when Turgeon was arrested, the affidavit said.
After his arrest, Turgeon admitted to using the screenname, according to the affidavit.
The person under the name styxfan5500 said he was at work during at least three of the conversations noted in the affidavit. Styxfan5500 said he was masturbating in his private office and once requested the 13-year-old masturbate at the same time, the affidavit said. Styxfan5500 told the girl to call him at work, giving her a university phone number traced to Turgeon's office, according to the affidavit.
Tim Green, assistant chief of police in Carmel, said both Turgeon's work and home computers were confiscated by the Carmel Police Department on Sept. 8. Also that day, Turgeon was arrested at his home, 602 N. Main St. in Gaston, on suspicion of child solicitation, a Class C felony, and two counts of dissemination of matter harmful to minors, a Class D felony, according to the affidavit. A Hamilton County Jail official said Turgeon posted bail Sept. 9.
Turgeon, whose office was in room 301 of the Administration Building, admitted to using the screen name styxfan5500 during his interrogation, the affidavit said.
Turgeon declined to comment.
Green said the department investigates about one case of this nature a month.
Turgeon will be prosecuted in Hamilton County, Green said.
Glenn Augustine, senior director of University Communications, said Turgeon was hired in 1998, and references were checked at that time. During the past two years, the university started checking job applicants on the national sex offender registry and the Indiana sheriff's sex offender registry, he said.
At the time of Turgeon's hiring, the university did not check either registry. In a search, Turgeon was not registered on either Web site.
The university has not had a complaint about Turgeon since he was hired, Augustine said.
A senior information analyst supports business software applications, such as the campus ID system and the Kronos time and attendance system, in Business Affairs, according to the position's job description.
Augustine said he was not aware of any similar incidents from other university employees, and the university is not aware of any other ongoing investigations of this nature.
"If the university's made aware of it, the university will cooperate fully with police," he said.
According to policies outlined on the University Computing Services Web site, the university is not responsible
for any claims, proceedings, damages, injuries, liabilities, losses, costs and expenses relating to any acts by a computer user. Also, the Web site said the university is not responsible for materials or information transmitted by computer users in connection with the university's systems leading to claims against the university and its systems by other users or third parties.
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