ANCHOR: A Beech Grove councilman faces criminal charges tonight, accused of soliciting a prostitute. Police arrested that councilman this morning for offering to pay an undercover police officer for sex.
ANCHOR: It’s a story that we first broke early this afternoon on the IndyChannel.com. RTV6 reporter Jack Rinehart is now here with what happened and what’s next.
RINEHART: Beech Grove councilman David Mobley is still in the arrestee processing center. But already, there are calls for his resignation. 62-year-old David Mobley, a first-term councilman, and now accused by police of being a first-time offender for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer.
MAYOR BUCKLEY: Upon hearing what I heard, I was disgusted. I’m offended, as the mayor and as a citizen of this city, I have no tolerance for that.
RINEHART: According to metro police, the arrest occurred in the 3000 block of East Washington Street. The officer said Mobley stopped in the middle of the street and asked how much. Police arrested two other people in the same area, a man for soliciting sex, and a 52-year-old East Side woman, her fourth arrest for prostitution.
BYSTANDER: I see it everyday, the girls walking up and down the street. If it’s out there, you know, somebody’s going to stop. And it’s not going to stop until they get them away from the streets, out of the neighborhood.
BELL: I’m very shocked, actually.
RINEHART: Beech Grove council president Ed Bell says that Mobley, elected as a Democrat, had spoken to him about changing parties.
BELL: Me personally, and as president of the council, I would say yes, he should probably step down.
RINEHART: With Mobley still sitting in a jail cell, Mayor Buckley hand-delivered this letter to the councilman’s home, asking for his resignation.
BUCKLEY: I don’t want to surround myself with people like that. The citizens of this city don’t deserve it, and neither do the people who serve on the council.
RINEHART: According to the undercover officer, Mobley tried to deny that he solicited her for sex. She told him that she had the conversation on tape and that she could fight him in court. For a Beech Grove City Councilman, a $20 sex act that could prove quite costly.