Posted on 12/22/2022 6:57:32 PM PST by DoodleBob
FRANKFORT — For weeks, Aaron Fossnock had been texting with Julie, a 15-year-old girl he met on a dating app. Fossnock sent graphic photos of himself and asked for some in return, but Julie never obliged.
Now, the two had plans to meet in the movie section at the Frankfort Walmart.
The 35-year-old texted her shortly before and asked Julie to dress a little older for the occasion. When the time arrived, Fossnock was there as promised, his 10-month-old twins tucked inside baby seats sitting in his shopping cart.
But Julie never showed up. Christopher Abercrombie did.
Armed with his camera phone, the 42-year-old Indianapolis resident confronted Fossnock over the texts he sent to “Julie,” a decoy created by Abercrombie.
“A f— 15 year old, huh?” Fossnock said upon seeing Abercrombie. The age of consent in Indiana is 16.
After initially denying who he was and why he was there, the Frankfort resident eventually admitted he had sent the texts. He wasn’t going to do anything sexual, he told Abercrombie; he just wanted to hang out because he was lonely.
Five days later, after Abercrombie submitted the phone with the text exchanges to police, Fossnock was arrested on a warrant for child solicitation and dissemination of matter harmful to a minor. He eventually took a plea agreement in the case and was sentenced to three years of probation.
It was Feb. 12, 2021, and Abercrombie had just helped land his first arrest as the founder of the Facebook group called Exposing Predators of Indiana’s Children (EPIC).
“I mean, I got 62,000 people that follow me and support me, so it feels great,” Abercrombie said recently.
CATCHING IN INDIANA
The incident in Frankfort was just one of thousands of sting operations conducted in the U.S. and around the globe by groups like EPIC, which have been popping up for years on social media sites.
The formula is virtually always the same: Civilian catchers create decoy accounts on dating apps and then reveal to people who respond that they are an underage girl or boy.
If the conversation continues, they lure men into conversations that eventually become sexual. The catchers then set up a place to meet, where they confront the person during a livestream so their thousands of fans can watch.
Some call them heroes selflessly defending children. Others see them as untrained vigilantes who sensationalize what should be hard-nosed police work.
That divide in opinion is growing ever deeper as Facebook catcher groups gain more followers by the day while more prosecutors have come out against the dangers and legal pitfalls baked into how they operate.
But love them or hate them, catcher groups aren’t going away, and instead have become embedded in American’s criminal justice system.
In just the past three years, at least 160 groups in the U.S. have been running predator catcher operations, according to a Washington Post analysis of their social media posts. One YouTube channel tracking catchers has counted more than 920 stings by amateurs this year alone, the analysis found.
In Indiana, groups like EPIC and Predator Catcher Indianapolis, which have the largest followings in the state, started gaining traction in 2020, adding tens of thousands of followers as they traveled the state livestreaming their confrontations with men looking for sex from minors.
One of the most recent videos to gain attention came Oct. 22 from the Predator Catcher Muncie Facebook group, who approached a former teacher at an Applebee’s after texting with him as a decoy 14-year-old boy.
The 63-year-old previously taught in Logansport schools for 39 years before retiring in 2020 and taking a job as a teacher’s aide at West View Elementary School in Muncie. In the video, he admitted to texting the decoy and confessed to the group that “this might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.”
But unlike the Frankfort arrest, no charges have been filed against the former teacher.
That’s because after years of dealing with vigilante catcher groups, Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman is fed up with their tactics and refuses to take their cases.
‘I CANNOT CONDONE CATCHERS’
In the parking lot of a Planet Fitness in Ohio in 2017, a catcher approached a man who had been corresponding with a fabricated 14-year-old-girl.
Rather than admit his alleged wrongdoing to the camera, the accused punched the catcher repeatedly and stole his camera before driving away and hitting the catcher’s leg with his car, causing minor injuries.
That’s the scenario Hoffman cites when talking about the inevitable violence to come as Indiana groups — without any formal training or experience dealing with suspected criminals — continue to confront people.
“Much like a cornered animal, sooner or later someone is going to get hurt,” Hoffman wrote in a statement released in February.
That’s just the beginning of his concerns.
What if an alleged predator pulls a gun and fires while being filmed in a Walmart parking lot? What if police are already working a child solicitation case and are thwarted when a catcher group stumbles into their investigation? What happens when these groups confront the wrong person and hurl false accusations that could ruin the reputation and livelihood of the accused?
“The bottom line is that no matter how noble the goal is, I cannot legally or ethically condone civilian predator catchers,” Hoffman said. “We must leave legal investigations to sworn law-enforcement officers.”
That’s the only way to ensure those who violate the law will be legally and ethically arrested and prosecuted and their convictions will be upheld on appeal, he argues.
But that argument faces challenges after Joshua Clark, a 37-year-old veteran and former Indiana police officer, was found guilty by a jury in September on a charge of child solicitation. The key witness in the case was a member of Predator Catcher Indianapolis, who submitted his text exchange with Clark to police after posing as an underage girl.
Virtually all other convictions stemming from citizen investigations come from plea agreements that don’t have to face the scrutiny of a jury. The Clark case proved evidence provided by catcher groups could hold up in court and win a conviction.
But one jury conviction doesn’t justify the onslaught of vigilante justice doled out by these groups, according to Indiana State Police Capt. Bryan Harper, who commands the Indiana Crimes Against Children Task Force.
He pointed to this summer, when the number of livestreamed confrontations by Indiana catchers saw a huge uptick. Abercrombie was one of those who contributed to the surge. He acknowledged he sometimes spent up to 60 hours a week over the summer creating decoy accounts and scheduling meetups with those who responded looking for sex.
That all makes Harper wonder: Where are all the convictions from those citizen investigations?
“I can tell you that if their techniques were that good, I think you would have heard of more cases being prosecuted successfully,” he said. “Based on what these groups are doing, I’m not seeing that and I’m not hearing that.”
‘BOTH SIDES OF THE STORY’
It was Abercrombie’s girlfriend who piqued his interest in catching child predators. She showed him videos from other Facebook groups, and he liked what he saw. In fact, he liked it so much that he decided he would start his own group, which he initially called Indy Cho-Mo Busters.
His girlfriend, on the other hand, wasn’t so keen. She thought it was too dangerous.
For the first time ever, Abercrombie decided to tell the truth about his past. He revealed to her how a family member sexually abused him when he was a child.
“When I had finally came clean to her about why I wanted to do it, she was all for it,” he said. “You know, I’ve been married three times, and I had never told any of my ex-wives or even my mother. No one knew, but a lot of these survivors have the same story. They’ve just held it in for so long.”
Abercrombie felt it was time to bring some justice to children who were living through what he had experienced as a kid. As he saw it, prosecutors of police weren’t doing enough to stop predators, like the one in his family, from committing crimes against children.
Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood said he understands that sentiment. In fact, he agrees that law enforcement should do more to catch those seeking to prey on minors.
“These groups have opened the eyes of everyone that we need to be doing this,” Eastwood said. “This is definitely one area where we need to find more money and devote more resources toward it.”
The caveat: “It’s got to be law enforcement,” he said. “It has to be a controlled investigation done under the rule of law to make sure that our convictions are just.”
Lt. Col. Scott McVoy with the Jeffersonville Police Department said he also fully understands the instinct from ordinary citizens to take the law into their own hands to catch child predators.
“It’s horrifying to see what these kids go through,” he said. “Obviously, you never want someone who engages in that type of activity to be a predator in your community.”
Catcher groups have submitted usable evidence in Clark County that has led to plea agreements and convictions, so McVoy is hesitant to fully write-off their efforts. He’s also hesitant to fully endorse their tactics, which don’t follow police procedures and can sometimes make it harder to make arrests.
“You know, I can see both sides of the story, if you will,” he said.
‘THE NEW NORMAL’
For weeks, Abercrombie, posing as an underage girl, had been texting with a Kokomo man. In August, he decided to confront the man at his home and livestream the event.
The incident led to an arrest, but it wasn’t the alleged predator who got collared. It was Abercrombie.
After the home owner realized Abercrombie was filming, he asked the EPIC founder once, then twice, then 30 more times to get off his property. The exchange became heated and Abercrombie walked to the end of the driveway to wait for police, who had been called to the scene.
After watching the video, prosecutors issued a warrant to Abercrombie in October on a misdemeanor charge of trespassing. Officers noted in their probable-cause affidavit that they submitted Abercrombie’s text messages and other evidence to Howard County Prosecutor Mark McCann for a full review.
No charges have been filed against the person approached in the video. Abercrombie was given an $8,000 bond, $800 of which he had to pay to post bail.
But McCann gave fair warning to people like Abercrombie. Last year, he issued a statement explaining to groups like EPIC the dangers of vigilante investigations. He asked that anyone who had information on an alleged child predator not confront that person, but instead submit it to police.
The misdemeanor charge hasn’t slowed Abercrombie, though. Since November, he’s posted five more livestreams from places such as Salem, Jeffersonville and Indianapolis after men there corresponded with his decoy.
The controversy around his catches doesn’t bother him, Abercrombie said, and he ignores those who say he’s only doing it for the Facebook views, the notoriety or the positive comments that flood in during his livestreams.
Whether prosecutors, police or viewers like it or not, Abercrombie explained, he’s got a job to do. And he isn’t going to stop.
“I don’t discriminate if you mess with a child,” he said. “You deserve everything you got coming. This is the new normal now.”
“Pushback”???
Must be from democrats.
“But unlike the Frankfort arrest, no charges have been filed against the former teacher. That’s because after years of dealing with vigilante catcher groups, Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman is fed up with their tactics and refuses to take their cases.”
Protector of child predators.
“What if police are already working a child solicitation case and are thwarted when a catcher group stumbles into their investigation?”
Somehow I think that’s unlikely in Hoffman’s world.
Need some groups to go after female teachers.
This man is bringing attention to and evidence against several sex predators. That’s great but the way he does this work is extremely dangerous. When people know they’re about to lose everything, their job, marriage and reputation they are like cornered rats with nothing to lose.
Maybe he’s fine with the risks. Some people are attracted to endeavors that are highly risky and unpredictable. He probably has someone armed nearby but in the shadows.
Hmm what movie is that from?
Unless it involved a child of a big political donor. And then only maybe.
If you are "lonely" you look for people of your own age.
Not minors.
That scene is from the 2015 Adam Sandler movie called The Ridiculous 6.
“Others see them as untrained vigilantes who sensationalize what should be hard-nosed police work.”
Yeah. The “others” are the bad guys.
Absolutely no question about it.
He should be investigated immediately.
One thing about these criminal cases makes no sense. How do you charge someone with a crime like this when there’s no child/minor involved? I would think the case would fall apart as soon as the “minor” is put on the witness stand and he turns out to be a 30+ year-old dude.
“The catchers then set up a place to meet.” Wrong move. The catcher should deliver the information to police rather than meeting the suspects. It takes massive courage for catchers to arrange meetings with suspects, for sure. I know a catcher here in So Cal and yes, he is very courageous and honest. But meeting suspects without a badge is weak.
Ah,I haven’t watched it.
Its an unpopular view but i agree with you.If an adult pretends to be underage,they are still an adult,where is the crime of 2 consenting adults chatting with each other?
THAT right there is EXACTLY what needs to happen to Fauxi, and a host of others of like evil ilk, but especially the Fauxi....rope dance deluxe with no hood.
I think something likes this gives the police to run an investigation and get a search warrent on the premises and PC. Also, I think it falls under the same kind of laws that will prosecute a person if they use a toy gun in a robbery. The victim does not know it is a toy gun. The intent - armed robbery - is the same. Now, I would like to see this expanded to those who throw water or pies at conservative speakers. It is assault and could just as well be acid or some other harmful substance.
The crime is one of the “consenting” adults believes the other is a child.
That’s a good point, but in a case of a sex predator and a “minor” there’s the distinction that the person using the deception is NOT the accused criminal. So all of the burdens of not only proving guilt, but supporting probable cause issues with warrants, weighs in favor of the accused criminal, not the accusers.
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