Minneapolis teacher charged with child sex crimes after 'predator hunter' sting
A Minneapolis substitute teacher has been charged with 14 child sex offenses following a sting operation by a Houston-based "predator hunter" group.
Preston Casey Palmer, 34, is facing charges of possession and distribution of child pornography and solicitation of a child under the age of 14.
It follows a months-long operation by Predator Poachers, an online vigilante group led by Alex Rosen that lures suspected pedophiles and then confronts them on camera, which culminated with Palmer's arrested at Brackett Field Park in south Minneapolis on Wednesday.
Police arrived at the park to be met by several members of Predator Poachers, who told officers that Palmer had been communicating online with a 17-year-old who was pretending to be a 13-year-old boy since March, with these conversations allegedly "overtly sexual in nature and involved the dissemination of sexual images depicting adults and children."
Among the messages was a claim by Palmer that he had 87 gigabytes of child sexual abuse material and more than 1,000 videos, saying he keeps them on his "pedophone," according to the criminal complaint.
The park where he was arrested is close to Palmer's current place of work, Sullivan STEAM Middle School. He has worked at several schools in Minneapolis since being hired as a substitute teacher in November, per the Star Tribune.
The predator hunters said that Palmer allegedly agreed to meet in the park with the "13-year-old boy" and the boy's "father," who was actually another member of the group.
While Palmer was being arrested, the complaint says a young child in the park shouted "That's my teacher!"
Palmer allegedly had a flash drive and a cellphone in his possession at the time of his arrest, with the phone containing more than 18,000 files. While these are being forensically examiner, a "preliminary review of 40 random files were found to contain images of juveniles performing sexual acts."
As je was being taken into custody, Palmer allegedly made "several spontaneous statements that he was sorry, he was an addict, and he will have a felony and be on the registry."
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