This article will update.
A former member of the Beech Grove Common Council was arrested Feb. 11 after investigators say he used artificial intelligence to edit and generate child sexual abuse material.
William “Buddy” Templin, 64, faces 10 charges related to child sexual exploitation material. He served as a Beech Grove councilor at-large for a total of 12 years, most recently between 2016 and 2024, according to a spokesperson working on the city’s behalf. Templin ended his time on the council as president pro tempore, according to the city’s meeting minutes. He ran an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2011 but was beat in the Democratic primary by Dennis Buckley.
The investigation into Templin began in November 2025 after an photo-editing platform tipped off the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a user uploaded suspected child sex abuse material to their two accounts.
One was registered to William Templin’s iCloud account, and the other returned to the email address for his private security business, of which little information was available online.
The user grafted the face of “one specific adult female” onto multiple indecent images of young children, investigators wrote. There were also digitally-manipulated images of adults, “which included adding genitals to previously clothed adult images,” court documents said.
In some instances, the user edited existing child sex abuse material, swapping out victims’ faces with other kids’ faces, and in at least once instance swapping out a perpetrator’s face with his own.
Templin was detained on Feb. 11 at his home. In a custodial interview, he said he did not understand how the “cloud” worked and believed his activities were private.
When asked about the photo editing app, Templin said he “believed he could do anything he wanted there” and “felt like he hadn’t done anything wrong,” detectives wrote.
He described the image creation as a “game” and said he “didn’t think like that in the real world.”
“Templin said he just kept ‘playing the game’ and putting the files together. He said he didn’t always agree with the photos that he created and had no feelings about them,” detectives wrote. He then said he knew the files were “morally wrong.”
AI-generated child sex abuse material has been at the forefront of discussions regarding the technology’s safety. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says it has received more than 70,000 child sexual exploitation reports involving generative AI over the past two years.
Last week, French authorities raided the Paris offices of X and summoned Elon Musk to appear at an April hearing as part of an investigation that includes “alleged complicity in the detention and diffusion of images in a child-pornographic nature,” USAToday reported.
The charges against Templin remained pending at the time of publication, and no defense attorney was listed. Final charging decisions will be made by the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office.
Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Ex-Beech Grove councilor used AI to create child sex abuse material, police say
Reporting by Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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