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- Stoney Westmoreland, 52, was arrested in 2018 after trying to meet an investigator who was posing as a 13-year-old teenager on Grindr, police said
- Westmoreland, who played grandfather ‘Ham’ on Disney’s hit series Andy Mack, took a plea deal with the prosecution and will spend 24 months behind bars
- The disgraced actor originally faced a ten-year sentence stemming from charges of enticement of a minor over the Internet or text
- After taking the deal, he was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of using interstate facilities to transmit information about a minor
A former Disney Channel actor will spend two years in federal prison for allegedly enticing a minor into sex, prosecutors said.
Stoney Westmoreland, 52, communicated with an undercover officer on the app Grindr and was arrested in 2018 after trying to meet the investigator who was posing as a 13-year-old teenager.
Westmoreland, who played grandfather ‘Ham’ on Disney’s hit series Andy Mack, took a plea deal with the prosecution and will spend 24 months behind bars followed by ten years of supervised release, TMZ reported.
The disgraced actor originally faced a ten-year sentence stemming from charges of enticement of a minor over the Internet or text.
After taking the deal, he was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of using interstate facilities to transmit information about a minor.
Westmoreland’s lawyers had argued that the actor believed he was communicating with an adult roleplaying as a 13-year-old and had no real intention of meeting with a minor.
In addition to the sentence, Westmoreland will not be allowed to interact with minors without adult supervision.
His electronic devices and social media accounts will also be subject to random inspections upon his release, according to TMZ.
In 2018, Utah police said Westmoreland communicated with an undercover officer who was posing as a 13-year-old teenager.
Authorities said Westmoreland tried to meet the teen for sex by using a ride-sharing app to order the victim a car to the Little America Hotel.
Two novelty sex toys were seized from the hotel room.
That’s when he was taken into custody by the Salt Lake City Police Department and FBI Child Exploitation Task Force.
According to police he ‘admitted to sending nude photos, and that the male who he was speaking with told him he was 13 years old’.
He was initially charged with four counts of dealing in materials harmful to a minor and one count of enticing a minor by internet or text.
Westmoreland, who is bisexual, had previously pleaded not guilty to enticement of a minor.
Known as grandfather Henry ‘Ham’ Mack on the children’s show Andi Mack, Westmoreland was fired by Disney in December 2018 on the same day he was arrested.
Disney said in a statement at the time Westmoreland was fired: ‘Given the nature of the charges and our responsibility for the welfare of employed minors, we have released him from his recurring role and he will not be returning to work on the series which wraps production on its third season next week.’
The series, which has positive viewer ratings on IMDb and Google, takes viewers into the everyday life and drama of 13-year-old Mack, played by Peyton Elizabeth Lee.
His co-stars on the program he worked on for three seasons ranged in age from 14 to 17 years old but the network is most popular with youngsters aged six to 14.
The series first aired on the Disney Channel in April 2017 and is currently still running.
Westmoreland has also starred in the TV series Scandal, NCIS: Los Angeles, Breaking Bad, Weeds and Gilmore Girls, to name a few.
