According to police chief Joe Prentice, Joshua Caudle, 28, is alleged to have contacted what he thought was an underage person seeking a sexual encounter. Prentice said his department had a detective posing as the pre-teen and carried on conversations with Caudle for nearly two weeks. “he male began the contact via a specific internet profile which he apparently later deleted. The male re-initiated contact using a different internet profile. During the communications the male acknowledged that he understood the age of the person he was communicating with was a pre-teen,” said Prentice.Prentice said March 27, 2018, detectives and other officers of the Okmulgee Police Department and the District 25 Violent Crime Task Force established surveillance in the area where the meeting was to take place.
In anticipation of that meeting detectives tentatively identified the male as 28 year old Joshua Caudle of Okmulgee.
“Caudle was observed leaving the jail and was tracked from the jail to the meeting location where officers took him into custody,” said Prentice. At the time of the arrest, Caudle was still clothed in his jail uniform and was armed with a handgun and was wearing body armor.
He was booked into the Okmulgee County jail on charges of electronically soliciting a minor for sex, possession of a firearm while in the commission of a felony and wearing body armor while in the commission of a felony.
