On June 21, after a two-day trial in Scott Circuit Court a jury returned a guilty verdict against Michael Fields, 39, of Dry Ridge.
The conviction is a culmination of an investigation by the Attorney General’s Cyber Crimes Branch into Fields’s online activity.
Beshear said the jury recommended that Fields serve 2.5 years on each count consecutively for a total 10-year sentence. Fields must also complete a sex offender treatment program and register as a sex offender.
A formal sentencing for Fields is scheduled for Aug. 4, 2017.
“A top priority for my office is to protect our children from sexual abuse,” Beshear said. “I would like to thank the Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Pat Molloy and Assistant Attorney General Jon Heck for handling the prosecution of the case, and appreciate the hard work of the investigators in our Cyber Crimes Branch for helping to secure justice in the case.”
The work of the Cyber Crimes Unit, a division of the Department of Criminal Investigations in the Office of the Attorney General, is part of Beshear’s core mission to keep sexual predators away from Kentucky’s families and children.
Since taking office Jan. 4, 2015, Beshear’s Cyber Crimes Unit has arrested or convicted more than 80 sexual predators.