Stephen Buchanan

Stephen Buchanan ‘Short Eyes”

Stephen Buchanan yearned to become a Stratford police officer, and in fact is number 100 on the department’s hiring list.

But his chances of becoming a cop didn’t look so good Tuesday as the 27-year-old Buchanan, dressed in a bright-orange jumpsuit, stood beforeSuperior Court Judge Robert Devlin and pleaded not guilty to trying to have sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Buchanan is one of 10 men caught up in a sting early this month by Fairfield police. The sting was put together by TV newsman Chris Hansen for an upcoming show.

What particularly trouble police about Buchanan, a member of the Connecticut National Guard, is that after they took him into custody at the decoy home where Fairfield University students were posing as a 13-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy, they said they found a loaded gun, a roll of duct tape and a knife in a bag in his car.