EDP445 Case Sparks Dispute Over Sting Group’s Cooperation With Investigators
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EDP445‘s criminal case has prompted a dispute over whether the online sting group that confronted him in 2021 cooperated with investigators.
Predator Poachers founder Alex Rosen told News 3 his team supplied chat records and account access. Prosecutors have blamed cooperation problems for complicating their earlier review.
“We gave him (investigator) access to all of the accounts,” Rosen said.
Rosen shared emails showing an investigator’s questions about account changes, deleted messages and conversation dates. The exchange included a message dated May 13, 2021.
The former YouTuber, whose legal name is Bryant Moreland, was arrested in Henderson, Nevada, on November 4. Henderson police said officers took him into custody on a warrant shortly before noon near Green Valley and Pebble.
Moreland was booked into the Clark County Detention Center. He remained there Thursday. He had built an audience of millions on YouTube before the 2021 allegations drove him off major social platforms. Content creator JiDion posted footage of officers taking Moreland into custody outside a dialysis center on Corporate Circle.
California prosecutors filed four felony charges on November 2. The counts include attempting lewd acts upon a child, meeting a minor for lewd purposes, contacting a minor with intent to commit a sexual offense and distributing or showing pornography to a minor.
The allegations concern an April 17, 2021 incident in Bakersfield. Predator Poachers used an online decoy who posed as a 13-year-old girl, then recorded a confrontation with Moreland at an apartment complex.
The district attorney’s office reviewed the matter in 2021 and 2022. It said statements Moreland later made in filmmaker Mike Clum’s documentary, The Sick Mind Of EDP445, led prosecutors and sheriff’s investigators to reopen the case.
That documentary appeared on YouTube in August. Former To Catch A Predator host Chris Hansen interviewed Moreland for the film, which returned the long-running allegations to public view.
“We’re looking very forward to assisting in his prosecution in any way possible,” Rosen said.
Moreland is expected in Las Vegas court Monday, November 9, as the extradition process proceeds. Prosecutors said a California arraignment will be set after he returns to Kern County.
