By GLEN WERLING
A former Bluffton police officer has been arrested once again for soliciting sexual favors.
James Allan Mettler, 71, Bluffton, has been charged in Adams Superior Court with one count of making an unlawful proposition, a Class A misdemeanor.
As of Thursday morning Mettler was being held at the Adams County Jail without bond.
On Nov. 30, Mettler, apparently unaware that he was communicating with a female who was cooperating with the Adams County Sheriff’s Department, is alleged to have arranged for an illicit sexual encounter with the woman at the Express Inn and Suites in Decatur in exchange for $200.
The encounter was reportedly set up on a website called skipthegames.com, which according to the report filed with the court is well known for human trafficking, prostitution, and crimes against children.
Mettler is alleged to have sought sexual intercourse with the female and possibly another woman as part of a threesome. He reportedly believed he was meeting the women at the motel at 3:45 p.m.
The cooperating individual was reportedly standing in the doorway awaiting Mettler’s arrival after he pulled his pickup truck into a parking space. When he started to enter the room where the encounter was supposed to take place, he was greeted by a combination of Adams County and Wells County sheriff’s detectives as part of the DETECT drug task force. They reportedly told him to put up his hands.
Mettler allegedly turned around and started to walk away shouting “I didn’t do anything.” One of the detectives grabbed Mettler’s arms as he protested continuously that he didn’t do anything. The detectives placed Mettler against a wall, but he reportedly continued to resist their efforts to place him into handcuffs. The detectives allegedly forced Mettler’s hands behind him and handcuffed him without further incident.
After being detained, Mettler allegedly admitted that he had come to the motel to have sex with the cooperating individual and/or to watch the woman have sex with another woman.
Mettler also allegedly told the detectives he had paid for sex with the cooperating individual in the past.
Mettler was out on bond from Grant County Superior Court 2 following his Aug. 9, 2021, arraignment on charges of vicarious sexual misconduct with a defendant over the age of 18 causing a child under the age of 16 to commit a deviate sexual act, a Level 4 felony, and two counts of making an unlawful proposition, both Class A misdemeanors.
In that case, Mettler also contacted a male Indiana Excise Police officer posing online as a female prostitute. Mettler reportedly attempted to solicit sex from a 20-year-old woman who told Mettler that a 15-year-old girl could be joining in the activity. While Mettler stated in his electronic communication with the officer that he “was not going to do anything with a minor” he did tell the officer through the communication that he would watch while the two “women” had sex with each other.
A jury trial in that case has been set for 8:30 a.m. Feb. 28, 2023.
glenw@news-banner.com
