Police: Officer Paid Prostitute For Sex At School While On Duty

INDIANAPOLIS -- Charges were filed Tuesday against an Indianapolis police officer accused of paying a prostitute for sex at an elementary school while on duty.

James Ingalls (pictured) was charged with one count of felony official misconduct and one count of misdemeanor patronizing a prostitute.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Kristen Harbaugh was approached by Ingalls several times last summer about performing sex for money while Ingalls was in full uniform and driving a department-issued vehicle.

Police said Ingalls took the woman to Garden City Elementary School on Rockville Road near South Lynhurst Drive, where the transactions took place.

As a part-time employee of the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township, Ingalls had the alarm codes and keys to enter the building.

"The woman said, 'He told me he was a man and he had needs,'" said Helen Marchal with the Marion County Prosecutor's Office. "We were able to verify that he was in the building at the time that individual stated they had been there."

Harbaugh said Ingalls would also warn her to stay off the streets when officers conducted prostitution sweeps in that neighborhood.

Police said Harbaugh correctly described tattoos and piercings on Ingalls' chest and detailed alleged encounters in the school nurse's office

In August, Ingalls was suspended from the department without pay and recommended for termination following an internal investigation.

Ingalls had been on the force since 1998. He was turned himself in on Wednesday and was held on $10,000 bond.