Latest news with #ToCatchaPredator
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Chris Hansen speaks on Alabama sting operation resulting in arrests
BLOUNT COUNTY, Ala. (WIAT) — A recent Blount County undercover operation to catch online predators landed two men behind bars. The Blount County Sheriff's Office arrested Chase Andrew Abercrombie and Kody Ray Smith. Investigators said they were working with Chris Hansen. He hosts 'Takedown with Chris Hansen' and was the face of 'To Catch a Predator.' Abercrombie and Smith were charged with human trafficking, electronic solicitation, sex offenses involving minors and traveling to meet a child to perform a sexual act. Woman found dead outside Birmingham residence The men thought they were speaking with an underage child online. When they arrived at a sting house, however, deputies met them. Hansen said he found one detail of the sting disturbing. 'What surprises me about this particular sting is that one of the men, who is 30 years old, Kody Ray Smith, had just gotten married two weeks before he showed up at the sting house to try to sexually exploit, allegedly, a 15-year-old girl,' Hansen said. Abercrombie posted bond, while Smith was in custody as of Tuesday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
Boca Raton Middle employee fired after being accused of trying to meet minor for sex
The Palm Beach County School Board has terminated a man who worked at Boca Raton Middle School following his arrest earlier this week on a charge of traveling to meet a minor for unlawful sex. Stephon McCray, 44, was a 'non-instructional staff member' and was removed from the middle school in February when McCray was initially reported to Delray Beach Police, the school said in a message to parents on Wednesday. The School Board voted to fire him on Wednesday. Officers were called to Sprouts Farmers Market in Delray Beach on Feb. 26 about a 'suspicious incident.' They met with Dustin Lampros, who runs a social media account called '561 Predator Catchers,' according to a probable cause affidavit for McCray's arrest. The account is similar to the 'To Catch a Predator' series from NBC's 'Dateline,' where adult men ran sting operations and confronted those who believed there were meeting up with minors for sex in the early 2000s. Lampros told police that McCray had been inappropriately communicating through the dating app Grindr and through texts with someone who posing as a 14-year-old boy named 'Jordan,' the affidavit said. In reality, McCray was messaging with someone else, a 'decoy.' Lampros showed officers all of the messages. McCray and 'Jordan' messaged for several hours on Feb. 26, and several were about meeting up for sexual activity, the affidavit showed. 'Jordan' early on in their texting purported to McCray that he was a minor. It is not clear in the affidavit who was actually texting McCray. 'do u care if im younger or nah,' the person pretending to be a minor wrote. 'Are you legal?' McCray replied. 'im bout to be 15 just being honest its hard af being gay nowadays hope u not madd,' the person wrote back. 'I'm not mad… but being under age can get someone like me in prison if it were to become anything but clean and clear conversation,' McCray replied. In the messages that followed, McCray told the decoy that their conversations had to be 'PG-13 or better,' according to the affidavit. They talked about meeting up at a store, and 'Jordan' asked what they would do if they were to meet. 'Not sure yet. I'm still trying to figure out and decide if you're an undercover law enforcement agent or not,' McCray wrote. 'What store would it be?' McCray in one message to 'Jordan' described exactly the situation he did not know he was in; he wrote that he had a friend who works as 'a child predator victim agency' and had told him about how people pretend to be minors online 'and then try to catch adults who setup meetings to 'abuse' them,' the affidavit said. 'bruh I aint got time for that,' the decoy replied. After McCray allegedly messaged that he was hoping 'Jordan' would engage in sexual activity with him and went to the supermarket to meet up, Lampros confronted McCray inside the store and recorded the encounter, a video posted on YouTube showed. Lampros's stings have resulted in numerous arrests in Palm Beach County. The probable cause affidavit was signed by an officer a week later. McCray was booked into the Palm Beach County jail earlier this week and has been released after posting bail on a $20,000 bond and must follow certain conditions, including not using the internet, social media, a computer, a smart phone or emailing or text messaging. His defense attorney did not respond to a request for comment. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge. The message sent to Boca Raton Middle School families on Wednesday said that McCray had not been allowed to interact with any students since he was removed from the campus in February. 'The safety of our students is our utmost priority. Following an internal investigation, the School District is proceeding with the termination of Mr. McCray's employment,' the message said. 'We were informed (Tuesday) that Mr. McCray has been arrested. Current information suggests this incident did not involve any students from our campus.'
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Yahoo
Outside defense lawyer: Judge made right call in Assumption case
WORCESTER — The judge who dismissed kidnapping and conspiracy charges against five former Assumption University students April 8 made the correct ruling, a longtime Boston defense lawyer who has followed the case believes. 'The judge absolutely made the right decision,' William A. Korman, of the Boston firm Rudolph Friedmann LLP, told the Telegram & Gazette. Korman, who offered commentary on the case recently for the Law & Crime Network, opined that police, while correct to pursue a case, did not issue appropriate charges. Assumption Police charged five students — all of whom, the university confirmed, are no longer enrolled — with felony kidnapping and conspiracy charges after an Oct. 1 incident at Alumni Hall. Video entered into court records shows dozens of students confronting and chasing a 22-year-old man out of the building, where he is hit with his car door upon leaving. Police say the students lured the man to campus and falsely labeled him a sexual predator in order to confront him on video, part of a growing online trend based on the decades-old NBC show, 'To Catch a Predator.' They alleged the man was restrained and had to 'break free' — which they argued constituted kidnapping — but defense lawyers argued video of the event contradicted that claim. Central District Court Judge Michael Allard-Madaus, after considering the video, dismissed the kidnapping and conspiracy charges for all five former students. Allard-Madaus, as is not uncommon in district court, did not offer a written opinion explaining his ruling. Korman said he believed defense lawyers, who argued their motions to dismiss March 28, did a good job of arguing their clients didn't keep the man from leaving and didn't have a plan that would meet the definition of a conspiracy to kidnap. Korman said he didn't see any evidence the students had all agreed on what to do, other than lure the man to campus and confront him, which he opined is not a crime by itself. Korman said while there may have been charges for police to file — a simple assault charge might be one option, he said — the kidnapping and conspiracy charges were a stretch. 'I think this is a perfect example of police officers needing to be very careful about the language they use in police reports and applications for (charges),' he said, adding that language used to describe events should be 'more direct and clear, not a charitable interpretation of events.' Korman said while he believes police missed the mark on specific charges, he does see why charges were necessary. ''I think the important takeaway is that this could have gone in so many directions, each of which is tragic,' he said. Korman noted the alleged victim could have been armed and inflicted violence out of fear, or could have been badly injured had a mob mentality set in. He could have slipped and injured himself running out of the building, he said, or struck someone when hurrying to leave in his car. 'There's a thousand ways this could have been worse,' he said, calling what ultimately happened the best outcome one could have hoped for. Korman said the judge's ruling is one prosecutors could appeal, or that police could try and bring charges again. Neither prosecutors nor Assumption University has offered comment on next possible steps. Prosecutors have said their professional rules of conduct bar comment, since two of the former students are still facing charges. One of the students, Kelsy Brainard, faces a charge of misleading police, while a second, Kevin Carroll, faces a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Police allege Brainard initially gave a false story about what happened, while Carroll, they allege, admitted to shutting the man's car door on him as he left. Brainard and Carroll are both due back in court May 9 for a status hearing. Reached via text, the 22-year old, a member of the Army from North Carolina, referred comment to his lawyer, Richard Rafferty, who did not return requests for comment. This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Lawyer says right call made in Assumption 'Predator' case
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Yahoo
New social media trend could hinder police investigations and land instigators in jail
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WIAT) – Local law enforcement agencies are sounding the alarm about a new social media trend. They hope to warn people of the risks before it gets out of hand. The West Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force says people are trying to take the justice system into their own hands by creating their own traps for suspected child predators and confronting them. In some cases, these confrontations get physical, and the fights are filmed and put on social media. The task force says there's one local case of this trend happening but because it's actively being investigated, no further details can be shared at this time. The task force is calling it 'vigilante justice' and warns it can have serious risks. 'You don't know if this person is coming armed, you don't know if this person is actually the person that you're trying to entrap, you don't know the backstory,' said the task force commander Philip Simpson, a captain in the Tuscaloosa Police Department. The task force says child predator investigations are complex and must follow a lot of state and federal laws. 'We do several operations a year here in the greater-Tuscaloosa area. We work with other agencies outside of our county here in west Alabama and any other agency that asks for our assistance,' Simpson said. 'It's something that happens regularly; we're just like every other place in America. We're not any worse off than anybody else is.' If people try to take matters into their own hands, the task force says it could end up with the suspect not being able to be prosecuted. 'We have the ability to go after these people and make a real difference. We can do it right so that they can be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and the actions, the penalties that they need to face, they can face,' Simpson said. 'This is a full-time task force. We constantly have investigations going, and I would be really, really upset if we had spent a lot of time working on a particular predator and somebody messed that up.' Not only can this social media trend hinder official investigations, but the task force says the 'vigilante' could catch charges as well. 'Unlawful imprisonment…you could end up being charged with that crime simply by infringing upon their freedom to move. Harassment charges can be brought. What we're seeing in a lot of these videos are felony-level assaults,' Simpson said. He says TV shows like 'To Catch a Predator' can have an influence on these kinds of trends. 'People see that on TV and think, 'I can do that.' They also see it on TikTok and Instagram and the other social media places, and they go, 'I'm smart enough to do that, I can talk to this person,'' he added. We reached out to the host of 'To Catch a Predator', Chris Hansen, about the trend. He provided the following statement: 'I think there is an important role for citizen journalists who use social media to share their work. Unfortunately…. when it comes to some 'vigilante' Predator catchers, violence is used, laws are broken, and some criminal activity goes unprosecuted because of the tactics used.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
NBC News
10-04-2025
- NBC News
Charges are dropped against college students in 'Catch a Predator' case
A judge has dismissed conspiracy and kidnapping charges against five Massachusetts college students who were accused of plotting to lure a man to their campus through a dating app and then seizing him as part of a trend on social media. The Assumption University students, all teenagers, were arraigned in January and entered not guilty pleas. Since then, their lawyers had filed motions seeking to dismiss the charges, saying authorities lacked probable cause to believe they committed crimes. Following a hearing last month, a Worcester District Court judge on Tuesday dismissed the conspiracy and kidnapping charges against Kelsy Brainard, Easton Randall, Kevin Carroll, Isabella Trudeau and Joaquin Smith. It wasn't immediately known if charges were still pending against a sixth student, whose case was being handled in juvenile court. One of the students who was charged had told police that the trend was modeled on 'To Catch a Predator,' NBC's discontinued program that, during its three seasons, aimed to catch adults seeking to prey on minors using undercover cameras and decoys impersonating underage dates, according to a statement of facts in the case. Police say Brainard's Tinder account was used to lure the man to the private, Roman Catholic university in Worcester last October and that the encounter was caught on video. Brainard still faces a charge of witness intimidation and Carroll faces a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. 'We are grateful that the court, after a fair hearing and due consideration, applied the law properly,' Brainard's lawyer, Christopher Todd, said in an email Wednesday. 'No decisions have been made about our path to resolution of the remaining count.' A message seeking comment was emailed Wednesday to Carroll's lawyer. The Assumption University Police Department 'fulfilled its duty as an accredited law enforcement agency by filing charges describing the facts of the incident and the elements of a crime under Massachusetts law,' university spokesperson Matt McDermott said in an email Wednesday. 'The district attorney accepted and prosecuted those charges. All of the charges in the case, including those that remain in place, are within the purview of the judicial system to resolve.' The district attorney office's rules of professional conduct preclude it from commenting, 'as there are still pending cases in this matter,' spokesperson Lindsay Corcoran said in an email. A report filed by campus police said a 22-year-old active-duty military service member connected with a woman on Tinder in October and was invited inside a basement lounge. Within minutes, 'a group of people came out of nowhere and started calling him a pedophile,' accusing him of wanting sex with 17-year-old girls, according to the report. The man told police that he broke free and was chased by at least 25 people to his car, where he was punched in the head and his car door was slammed on him before he managed to flee. Campus surveillance video shows a large group of students, including the woman, 'all with their cellphones out in what seems to be a recording of the whole episode,' the police statement said. They are seen 'laughing and high fiving with each other' in what appeared to be 'a deliberately staged event,' and there was no evidence to indicate the man was seeking sexual relations with girls, the police report said. Todd's motion to dismiss said the video does not show anyone making an active effort to restrain the man and that Brainard stays on the couch in the lounge after he leaves. He said it was insufficient evidence to show 'that she was willing to assist in this 'kidnapping.'' Todd also said there was no evidence of a plan to hold the man against his will. Todd said a review of the conversation on the Tinder app shows the woman says she is 17, soon to turn 18. The man says 'that's fine, you're in college.' "To Catch a Predator," which aired from 2004 to 2007, used hidden cameras and people posing as minors in online chat rooms to lure alleged predators to houses where the host would confront them. The program did not condone or include any violence.
