Fort Riley soldier drove to Arkansas to meet teen girl, faces sex charges, cops say

A soldier at a Kansas military base was arrested early Saturday morning on suspicion of sex crimes after he drove to Arkansas to meet a teenager, officials said.

The parents of a 16-year-old girl told Baxter County Sheriff’s deputies they were concerned for their child’s safety when it was reported to law enforcement that a man planned to pick up their daughter. The man had been messaging the girl on social media, and she had sent him sexually explicit photos and videos at his request, Sheriff John F. Montgomery said in a news release.

The man had arranged to meet the girl in a parking lot of a business on Highway 5 south of Mountain Home, Ark., about 120 miles east of Fayetteville. Deputies set up surveillance in the area, then at around 12:47 a.m. a vehicle drove past the area twice before parking, the release said.

The man then left his car and walked along the highway and past the girl’s house to their meeting spot, where he went behind a building, the release said. Deputies then approached the man and arrested him.

The man was identified as Andrew Mitchell O’Brien, 31, of Junction City.

In O’Brien’s vehicle, deputies found handcuffs, vodka, condoms and two cell phones that investigators think were used during the commission of crimes, the sheriff’s office said.

O’Brien was booked into the Baxter County Detention Center at around 1:45 a.m. Saturday and remains there in lieu of $50,000 bond, jail records show. He was arrested on felony charges of engaging children in sexually explicit conduct for use in visual or print medium and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.

Military police placed a detainer on O’Brien after investigators determined he was on active duty and stationed at Fort Riley, the sheriff’s office said. A detainer is a request by a law enforcement agency asking an institution to hold an incarcerated prisoner.