UPDATE: Stoney Westmoreland, charged with attempting to lure a minor into sex, has been sentenced to two years in federal prison and ten years of supervised release. Westmoreland copped a plea deal with prosecutors after the actor originally faced a ten year sentence,. But he was allowed to plead down to a lesser charge of using interstate facilities to transmit information about a minor.
EARLIER: Stoney Westmoreland, who played the grandfather on Disney Channel sitcom Andi Mack until he was fired amid allegations of trying to arrange online to have sex with a 13-year-old, has been charged with six felony counts involving the case.
Today’s counts include attempted exploitation of a minor and enticing a minor.
Salt Lake City prosecutors said Westmoreland, 48, found a Grindr profile operated by a police detective near where the Disney Channel sitcom is filmed. According to court documents, on December 13 the actor took a ridesharing service to meet the boy to take him back to his hotel room. He was arrested that day, and Disney cut ties with him hours later.
An affidavit filed this month in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City indicated that Westmoreland began communicating online with a user he believed was underage “on an Internet app used for dating and meeting people for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity.”
The age of the alleged victim is the same as the central characters on Andi Mack and the young actors who play them. The comedy, created by Terri Minsky, follows 13-year-old Andi Mack and her best friends, Cyrus Goodman and Buffy Driscoll, as they attend middle school.
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