Chattanooga Police Arrest Three Men For Sex Crimes Against Minors

From Left: Michael Ray Buckley, Eric Sartin, Shermar Mayfield Image Credit: Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office & Canva

The Tennessee Conservative Staff –

Chattanooga police arrested three men this week for solicitation and sexual exploitation of minors.

In a sting operation conducted by the Chattanooga Police Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, police posted a decoy advertisement on an adult escort site. An undercover officer pretended to be a 16-year-old girl.

Police say that 27-year-old Shermar Mayfield, of Columbus, Mississippi, responded to the ad and asked for the cost of a “quick visit” with the minor. He was told via text that the charge was $100 and that he had to bring alcohol with him.

According to officers, Mayfield then asked for a “body pic.” He arrived at the hotel and agreed to pay cash in exchange for sex. He was then arrested and charged with solicitation of a minor and trafficking for commercial sex acts.

54-year-old Eric T. Sartin, of Flintstone, Georgia, also responded and asked for prices and availability. He proceeded to ask about “bare services for more money.” He was told that that the respondent was 16 and required that protection be used.

At one point, Sartin asked, “If you’re 16, how do I know it’s not a scam to get me there babe?”

He later arrived at the hotel and agreed to pay $100. He was also charged with solicitation of a minor and trafficking for commercial sex acts.

In a separate event, police arrested 32-year-old Michael Ray Buckley of Chattanooga after he posed a minor on Instagram to coerce children into sending him explicit photographs and videos.

The FBI tipped off investigators about Buckley and they were able to pull information from his Instagram account after obtaining records from Meta.

Those records showed “multiple images and videos of CSAM (child sexual abuse material).

According to the affidavit, “It appears that Mr. Buckley has been posing as an 11-year-old boy, a 13-year-old boy, and a 13-year-old girl and he recruits minor-aged African-American females to send him videos of themselves doing sexual things that he requests. He then sends the videos to other people online and when they pay him for the videos, he pays the minors via Cash App and Paypal.”

The report states that the minor that Buckley chatted with most was only 10 years old. 

Buckley also allegedly disseminated an image of a minor that he obtained, pretending that it was him.

He allegedly has a total of 10 different social media accounts that he was using. When arrested, Buckley “admitted the Instagram account, Cash App account, Paypal account, and Telegram accounts were all his.”

Buckley is charged with 12 counts of soliciting sexual exploitation of a minor by electronic means, 11 counts of especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, and one count of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor for images sent through Telegram.