What happens when third-party investigators track down sex predators in Ohio

STARK COUNTY, Ohio (WOIO) - Several times in March, a group confronted people in the Canton area while streaming on Facebook. The group is dedicated to finding child sex predators online and exposing them, but no legal action followed. Why?

“It has to be an actual victim, child, or law enforcement posing so it doesn’t provide room for non-law enforcement doing these types of investigations,” said Dan Petricini, the senior assistant prosecuting attorney for Stark County.

He says the problem with a third party coming in, like a vigilante justice group, and running its own investigation is they are not bound by the same procedural laws as prosecutors or law enforcement.

In Ohio, the language is clear, it needs to be a minor or law enforcement drawing these predators out online if a case is going to get any real traction.

“There’s always going to be this question of whether this third-party group has given over all the information,” said Petricini.

He adds it is more helpful to get the police involved as soon as you suspect a minor is in danger so law enforcement can build a case that can go to trial without the holes a defense attorney can use to let someone off the hook.

“Honestly, that law is failing the community, not because we believe we are above the law enforcement, but because we know for a fact that law enforcement does not have the manpower to do these operations,” said Boots.

Boots is an alias for the man who founded Bikers Against Predators, the group that confronted two men earlier in March in Canton.

He says his team of 12 typically has trouble getting traction on legal action in the state but finds success in others. However, the team still pursues people in the state because, for them, exposure is victory.

“Any sentence that gets handed down from a judge is not as damaging as the video, and I will stand behind that because I see what it does to people,” said Boots.

The answer of which route is the best may not be so cut and dry.

Petricini argues there is a safety concern with these confrontations, and they are cases that are incredibly hard to try when law enforcement is brought in at the very end of the private investigation and assigns anyone to bring these interactions online to the police immediately.

Boots counters that the exposure is doing work for the community and bringing to light predators that would otherwise go unfound.

Both will continue to pursue predators who are learning the web.