Dustin McPhetridge: To Catch a Predator Sting, Plea, and Sentence

Dustin McPhetridge is a registered sex offender from Surgoinsville, Tennessee, who was arrested in October 2007 during an NBC “To Catch a Predator” sting in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He pleaded guilty in federal court to traveling in interstate commerce with intent to engage in sex with a minor and was sentenced to five years in federal prison followed by supervised release for life. His supervised release was later revoked in 2022, and he remains on Tennessee’s sex offender registry.

The 2007 Sting and What He Did

Between September 30 and October 20, 2007, McPhetridge exchanged online messages with an adult volunteer from the watchdog group Perverted Justice who was posing as a 13-year-old girl. He sent pornographic material and had sexually explicit conversations with the person he believed was a child.¹

On October 20, 2007, then 26 years old, he drove from Surgoinsville to Bowling Green to meet her. Officers arrested him on arrival. A search of his vehicle turned up a cell phone, lubricant, an electric razor, a digital camera, a memory card, and printed directions to the decoy’s house.¹

The operation was a joint effort by the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation, the Warren County Sheriff’s Department, the Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, NBC’s “Dateline,” and Perverted Justice. Seven men were arrested between October 18 and October 21.²

Federal Charge and Guilty Plea

Because he had crossed state lines, McPhetridge was indicted federally. On February 6, 2008, prosecutors in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky charged him with traveling in interstate commerce with the intent to engage in sex with a minor, case number 1:08-cr-00014. He was brought to federal court for arraignment on February 20, 2008, under a writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum, meaning he was already in another jurisdiction’s custody at the time.³

The court ordered a psychiatric examination and, on July 28, 2008, found him competent to stand trial. He entered a plea agreement on July 23, 2008, pleading guilty to the single count.³¹

Sentence

On November 12, 2008, Judge Joseph H. McKinley Jr. sentenced McPhetridge, then 27, to 60 months in federal prison followed by supervised release for life, plus a $100 special assessment.³¹ His projected release date with good-time credit was March 21, 2013.⁴

Supervised Release Revocation

After his release, McPhetridge remained on lifetime federal supervision. In February 2019, a sealed petition was filed in the Eastern District of Tennessee to revoke that supervision, and he made his initial appearance on February 25, 2019. After multiple continuances, the court entered an agreed order of revocation on June 14, 2022. The publicly available docket does not detail the underlying violation.⁵

Current Registry Status

McPhetridge is an active registrant on the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry, listed at 149 Hurd Road in Surgoinsville, Hawkins County. His entry, last updated November 7, 2025, records two offenses tied to the 2007 case: Sexual Exploitation of a Minor under Tennessee law and Attempted Unlawful Transaction with a Minor, the latter flagged as an out-of-state offense that requires Tennessee registration.⁶

1
Bowling Green Daily News. Police News
2
Bowling Green Daily News. Seven Arrested in Sting
3
CourtListener. United States v. McPhetridge, 1:08-cr-00014
4
GovInfo. USCOURTS-txnd-4_10-cv-00727
5
CourtListener. United States v. McPhetridge, 2:15-cr-05000
6
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Sex Offender Registry – Offender Details