AVON, Ind. – A high level executive with a Cornwall company has been arrested and charged with trying to solicit an underage girl in Indiana.
Patrick Diebel, 60, was arrested Oct. 10 by the Avon Police Department in the town just west of Indianapolis. He was charged with sexual misconduct with a minor and dissemination of matter or conducting performance harmful to minors.
Police charged him after a vigilante child predator hunting group set up a sting, posing online as a 14-year-old girl.
A jail tracking website shows Diebel was released four days later on a cash bond of $20,000 U.S.
Diebel is vice president of research and design for Morbern in Cornwall, a vinyl upholstery manufacturer.
In a news release obtained by Cornwall Newswatch, Morbern CEO Mark Bloomfield says Diebel “has been placed on suspension, and relieved of his duties.”
“Further information will be made available pending completion of (the) investigation into allegations involving non-work-related conduct,” Bloomfield wrote.
Court records show the case in Indiana is scheduled for a pretrial conference on Dec. 1 in Hendricks County Superior Court.