MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. — A judge sentenced a former Maryland Heights police officer who tried to lure an underage girl into sex acts with him online – only that underage girl was a police officer searching for sexual predators.
Gregory Ortlip, 57, of O'Fallon, Missouri, was sentenced to four years in prison Tuesday for one count of attempted possession of child pornography. He pleaded guilty in late July.
Ortlip also worked part-time at Ranken Jordan Pediatric Hospital at the time of the alleged crime, according to court documents. A hospital spokeswoman said Ortlip no longer works at the hospital.
“Police officers are sworn to protect the public, not endanger us,” St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell wrote in 2021. “These are deeply disturbing charges.”
The investigation began on Aug. 9, 2021, when an officer with the Kentucky Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force was undercover as a 14-year-old girl online. The officer started chatting with a random stranger on the same website, who was later identified as Ortlip. His arrest is part of Operation United Front, which was announced Friday by Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
During the online chat, Ortlip brought up the topic of sex after the officer claimed to be 14 years old. Ortlip then asked the officer posing as the underage girl to make sexually explicit images of herself, which would be child porn, according to the documents.
The documents outlined the online chat as follows:
Ortlip: Age?
Undercover officer: 14
Ortlip: Nice
Ortlip: Will you send me pictures of your naked body?
Undercover officer: like totally naked?
Ortlip: Yes, (expletive) and everything
On Aug. 25, Ortlip told police he used his iPhone to communicate with underage girls online and admitted to receiving a couple of nude pictures from a few underage girls, according to the documents.
The officer resigned from the Maryland Heights Police Department after a 23-year career there, according to the sources.
He also took a polygraph and was found to be deceptive.
Cellphone records show Ortlip was communicating with the undercover officer near a cell phone near the Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital along Dorsett Road. He was scheduled to work there that day from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The 57-year-old also told investigators he requested and received pictures from a 15-year-old Kansas girl.
In 2021, the Maryland Heights Police Department’s spokeswoman said the department had no comment. The Maryland Heights Police Officers Association had a 2016 and 2017 photo of Ortlip posted on their Facebook page. Ortlip and another officer were invited to the inauguration of Eric Greitens after saving the life of a man who was choking.
Erin Richey of the I-Team contributed to this report.