Charges dropped against Massachusetts college students over alleged 'catch a predator' plot
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Kidnapping and conspiracy charges against five Assumption University students accused of being part of a plan to "catch a predator' in October have been dropped.
Charges were dropped against Kelsy Brainard, 18; Kevin Carroll, 18; Easton Randall, 19; Joaquin Smith, 18; and Isabella Trudeau, 18, according to court documents obtained by USA TODAY and the Worcester County District Attorney.
'The kidnapping and conspiracy charges against all five of these defendants were dismissed by Worcester Central District Court Judge Michael Allard-Madaus,' Lindsay Corcoran, spokesperson for Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.'s office, told USA TODAY Thursday morning in a statement.
Corcoran said the court cannot provide details on the other defendant, a juvenile.
Kelsy Brainard, Kevin Carroll still facing criminal charges
Brainard is still facing a charge of intimidating a witness, police, or court official, Corcoran said, adding that Carroll is still facing a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Christopher S. Todd, a lawyer representing Brainard, said Thursday morning that the team is 'very pleased that the court applied the law properly in this case.'
'We look forward to resolving this matter, and hopefully everybody can move on with their lives,' he said.
Robert J. Iacovelli, who is representing Trudeau, said Thursday that the case was simply about 'the judge applying the law and recognizing there just simply wasn't enough there.'
Lawyers for Carroll, Randall, and Smith did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's requests for comment Thursday morning.
Kelsy Brainard said 'a creepy guy came to campus' to meet a 17-year-old girl
The man campus police said was falsely labeled a sexual predator is a 22-year-old U.S. Army member who was visiting from North Carolina, reported the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, part of the USA TODAY network.
The students involved were accused of assaulting the man on the Assumption University campus on Oct. 1, university police wrote in court documents. The man allegedly met a student on the dating app Tinder.
Investigators spoke to Brainard, who told them "a creepy guy came to campus looking to meet an underage girl' who he believed was 17, the documents show. She said she texted Randall to come and help her, and Randall chased the man off campus.
Brainard later told investigators her profile listed her age as 18, and when confronted about her story having discrepancies, she "acknowledged that to be true," documents show.
Tinder date said a group of 25 or more ambushed him on campus
According to court documents, the man called Worcester police for help after the incident. When officers met with him, he said he was in the area to attend his grandmother's funeral and wanted to "be around people that were happy."
He said he had been communicating with Brainard on Tinder and they planned to "try and hook up." When she invited him to come and meet her at Alumni Hall, he said she let him inside the building. Suddenly, a group of 25 or more people showed up and started saying he 'liked having sex with 17-year-old girls,' court documents show.
The man said he got scared when group members began holding him back and wouldn't let him leave, but once he broke free, he was attacked, according to the court documents.
He said he eventually made it back to his car where the group punched him in the back of the head, slammed his car door on his head and kicked his vehicle, the documents say.
He called the police when he was able to drive away, and according to the court documents, Carroll later confessed that he slammed the man's head in the car door.
Surveillance footage shows incident on campus
Investigators viewed surveillance footage starting just after 10:30 p.m. that night. The footage showed Brainard leading the man into the building and down a set of stairs to the lounge area, court documents read.
Eventually, the footage showed the man running up the stairs as a group of people chased him with their phones out. The group later re-entered the frame laughing and high-fiving each other, court documents show. Investigators also found footage circulating online of first-hand recordings of the incident, court documents say.
According to police who reviewed the Tinder messages between the man and Brainard, nothing indicated that he was looking to meet minors, and the profile he interacted with listed the individual's age as 18.
Investigators said the ordeal was inspired by a "catching a predator" trend on social media, particularly TikTok, where content creators chat with adults online and pretend to be minors. When the adults show up to meet, the content creators confront them about their conversations and attempts to meet.
The trend is similar to the format of the Dateline NBC show 'To Catch a Predator,' hosted by Chris Hansen, which originally ran from 2004 to 2007.
Group member used the term 'underage' and things got out of hand: Defendant
In the Assumption University case, investigators spoke to Randall, who said he worked with Brainard, Trudeau, Smith, Carroll, and an unnamed boy from start to finish on the "to catch a predator" plot.
It all began when Brainard began chatting with the man on Tinder, Randall said, adding that it was similar to the trend where people "catch a predator and either call police or kick their (expletive)."
Randall said they already had a group chat for Alumni Hall residents on the third floor and eventually used that chat to talk about the man on Tinder.
A group chat member named 'Smitty' mentioned the term "underage,' causing a "mass of people' to gather. Randall also admitted texting "you have to come down here," and "we're catching a predator," court documents show.
Assumption University said in a statement to USA TODAY on Thursday that what the students are accused of doing does not represent the school.
'The Assumption University Police Department … fulfilled its duty as an accredited law enforcement agency by filing charges describing the facts of the incident,' the university said.
Contributing: Brad Petrishen, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.
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