That sting was run back in May by Millersville Assistant Police Chief Shawn Taylor and a colorful cast of characters he assembled for the operation.

Among the revelations, the recordings show:

  • Taylor did not involve other law enforcement agencies with more experience in such operations because of his unfounded conspiracy theories that prominent state officials are involved in child sex trafficking.
  • Members of a private group posed online as minors — despite Millersville police being told by prosecutors that the sting would be legal only if sworn law enforcement officers were the ones doing the work.
  • Shawn Taylor told one operative that investigators would be using “pre-signed search warrants,” which would likely be illegal, according to experts.
  • Police arrested one suspect then, when he refused to talk to investigators, they turned him over to the private group for questioning.
  • A Millersville detective boasted that the suspect was being taken to a jail where it was likely that he might not come out alive.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240717120405/https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/franklin-politics/disturbing-recordings-from-inside-child-predator-sting-shows-police-maga-operatives-ignoring-laws

  • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Which is funny to me, because I’ve had two coworkers in two different orgs catch a set of bracelets for enticement of a minor using a computer, and neither one was a liberal.

    • kescusay@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Weirdly, same. Two different guys, both publicly pillars of the community. Both arrested for raping kids. In each case, they were just not at work one day, and our supervisors would just say, “So-and-so isn’t employed here anymore.”

      • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        That happened to me (kinda) the first time. I found out early because I got a a call about taking the on call phone (while already on call), and we were told not to talk about anything about it and he was totally coming back. But looking up the filing, we knew he wasn’t ever coming back.

      • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        General IT work. One was remote user support, the other was remote MSP work. Lots of really cool people in the industry, but apparently some super sketch peeps.

        • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
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          4 months ago

          At my last job, the CTO told me how he was promoted, and how his predecessor was in the national news. Used state owned computers to chat up a minor for months and then flew across the country to meet up and was arrested. Funny enough, he was not a cross dresser or liberal. Just a small town conservative older white guy that nobody suspected and everyone respected.

          • kescusay@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            That’s practically the checklist for child rapists:

            ☑ Older
            ☑ White
            ☑ Small town
            ☑ Conservative
            ☑ Well-respected

            I’m guessing religious? Respected pillar of the church?

            Yeah… These guys know how to present themselves in ways to avoid suspicion.