A Jefferson County man has been accused of trying to arrange sexual encounters with a St. Charles County Police officer posing as a 14-year-old girl in online chats, according to court documents.
Brenden Scott Galligan, 31, who lives in the Fenton area, on July 3 was charged by the St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office with enticement or attempted enticement of a child younger than 15, an unclassified felony punishable by five to 30 years in prison; and attempted sexual misconduct involving a child younger than 15, a class A misdemeanor that carries a penalty of up on year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000, court records said.
Galligan was being held on a $100,000 cash-only bond in the St. Charles County Jail, court documents show.
A St. Charles County Police officer contacted Galligan on June 6 on Reddit. The officer told Galligan that she was a 14-year-old girl, but Galligan allegedly requested sexual contact and sent the officer an explicit picture of himself, according to the case’s probable-cause statement.
The officer and Galligan continued to message each other from June 6 through June 29. Galligan allegedly continued to send pictures of himself and requested pictures of the girl he thought he was communicating with on Reddit and Telegram, the report said.
Galligan also allegedly arranged to meet with the person who he thought was a girl on two different occasions. However, he did not show up for the arranged meetings, according to the report.
Investigators obtained Galligan’s IP address and Google email through a search warrant and allegedly found that Galligan repeatedly contacted other women in the St. Louis area online for sexual purposes. One of those individuals was a 14-year-old girl, the report said.
Galligan was arrested July 2 in Wentzville while at his job as a restaurant manager. He denied speaking to anyone online or sending explicit pictures, according to the report.
On July 7, Galligan pleaded not guilty to the charges and was referred to a public defender for representation. As of Monday, July 14, no lawyer is listed for Galligan in court records.