Deputies arrest area police officer in child sexual assault case

BRUCEVILLE-EDDY, Texas (KWTX) – McLennan County deputies arrested a Bruceville-Eddy police officer Tuesday accused of arranging to have sex with a teenage boy.

Nathaniel George Lawrence, 32, was booked into the McLennan County Jail Tuesday charged with prostitution of a minor and sexual assault.

His bond had not been set, according to online records.

The investigation that led to his arrest started on Jan. 21 after the staff at McLane Children’s Hospital in Temple, where the boy was a patient, told a McLennan County investigator the teenager “was possibly receiving financial benefits from adult men in exchange for sexual acts,” an arrest warrant affidavit says.

The boy confirmed to the investigator “he had received money or goods in exchange for sex” from men he met through an app on his cellphone.

The deputy got the boy’s consent to search his phone and found messages from a man the boy met through the app.

The boy said he and the man communicated on Facetime twice and during one of the Facetime sessions the teenager confirmed the man was a police officer, the affidavit says.

The investigator traced the phone number used in the exchange of messages to Lawrence, the affidavit says.

Bruceville-Eddy police had been notified of the arrest, but had no comment.

McLennan County authorities said Lawrence was no longer employed by the Bruceville-Eddy Police Department.

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