Austin RICO suit accuses Dads Against Predators of assault, extortion | #childpredator | #onlinepredator | #sextrafficing

They describe themselves as hunters of child predators, but an Austin man who says he was assaulted and filmed by its members is calling Dads Against Predators an organized crime ring.

James Schellhase filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against the group he says assaulted him at an Austin-area H-E-B in 2024. He said the group’s members accused him of being a pedophile, attempted to extort him and got him fired from his job as a highly paid executive.

Filed on Sunday, the suit seeks potentially millions of dollars in damages. It claims members of the Ohio-based group create false dating profiles, then claim to be minors in an effort to meet targeted individuals for violent confrontations. According to the lawsuit, members film the encounter, attempt to extort the target and post the video online to generate revenue from their website and elsewhere. 

The lawsuit names Dads Against Predators and founders Jay Cameron Carnicom and Joshua Alvin Mundy. 

“I cannot speak for anyone else involved but I would like it to be noted that I claim no wrong doing (sic) and involvement with this particular incident,” Mundy said in an email in which he called Schellhase’s accusations baseless. “I do not and never have asked or taken a payment from a predator.” 

The group, which was founded in 2020, is part of a wave of vigilante groups with names like CreepCatchers and POPsquad. They set out to expose people they allege are sexual predators in viral videos that feel like those from NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” on steroids.

Dads Against Predators’ website says it exists to expose online predators and support families. Its website names and shames individuals through videos of encounters that users must subscribe to view. The group has claimed in previous interviews to have exposed more than 130 predators. The work of such groups has led to arrests, according to some reports, but also to violence and death.

Dads Against Predators has been linked to multiple suicides among people it has filmed. In several incidents, authorities have asked the group to stop and members have pursued by law enforcement in Florida and California.

Carnicom was arrested in Florida on allegations that he extorted another alleged predator. A biography on the group’s website says the father of five is an Army veteran who was victimized as a child. 

Mundy denied any involvement in those incidents and said he didn’t know the men in the California incident. He said Dads Against Predators is a YouTube moniker others have used before. 

The YouTube channel, which at one point had 98,000 subscribers, was banned from the site for violating its community guidelines. 

Warrants were issued for Carnicom and Kori Campbell for their alleged roles in Schellhase’s 2024 assault and another alleged assault that occurred the day before at the Lakeway H-E-B, according to the federal complaint and media reports.  

Schellhase recounted his version of events in his complaint. He said he engaged with two adult men on social media. He did not include records of the messages in the complaint but said he cut off contact when users of the profiles he was chatting with said they were minors. 

He alleged the users continued to reach out to him, and he suspected he was being pranked or scammed because of their lack of area knowledge. One said he attended a school that did not exist. 

“The profile user then asked to meet Plaintiff in person at H-E-B, a public grocery store. Plaintiff was already planning to visit H-E-B in preparation for an international business trip the following morning. Plaintiff agreed to meet the prank profile user at H-E-B either to call their bluff or put an end to the communications,” Schellhase said in his suit. 

On Sept. 28, 2024, he went to the H-E-B off Lake Austin Boulevard. There, a group of men that allegedly included Carnicom, Campbell, Nathanael Johnson and Austin Wileman confronted Schellhase — yelling that he was a pedophile. According to the lawsuit, the men began to punch him. He said he tried to escape, but they blocked him from leaving.

The video, which can still be found online, shows Schellhase being knocked unconscious with a pumpkin, allegedly by Campbell. It has been viewed 44 million times, according to the complaint. 

None of the alleged perpetrators responded to email and other attempts to contact them. 

Schellhase alleged that an H-E-B security guard looked on but didn’t intervene or call the police. He included the grocer as a defendant for the alleged lack of action by H-E-B employees, claiming premises liability and negligent undertaking. The San Antonio grocer did not respond to a request for comment.

After the assault, Schellhase said Dads Against Predators sent his company the video. He was then CEO of UnitedLex, a legal service and professional services company, earning $450,000 a year. He was suspended not long after and fired days later. 

Shortly after his termination, he said, the men reached out to him, saying he needed to cough up $400,000 or risk losing even more.

“Otherwise we are exposing you to your wife and businesses for who you really are!! You have the money just get this over with and move on with you (sic) life, and you get to keep your life as you know it,” they wrote according to the complaint, which included more than a dozen threatening messages. “But if we ever catch you again there will be no second chances!! ”

If he paid, they said, they would not post the video publicly. 

Schellhase then hired a digital forensic analyst to help him. He said he was advised to send a small amount of cryptocurrency as directed by the alleged extortionists. He said the wallet it went belonged to Campbell and that Campbell sent a photo of his ID to verify where the payment should be sent. 

When Schellhase refused to pay the full sum, the video of him was allegedly distributed across the group’s social media accounts to millions of followers. His phone number was shared by the group, and he said he received hundreds of threats.

“James, look out your window buddy. Look out your window … SURPRISE,” said one anonymous message. 

The video was posted with the logo of the online gambling company Stake, and the complaint said it drove traffic to that company’s website. 

Stake said it had no involvement in the video.

“It was not created, reviewed or approved by Stake,” a company spokesperson said in an email.

The spokesperson did not address allegations in the lawsuit that Stake profits from the videos and promotes them through an affiliate program that pays commissions based on revenue generated. 

Schellhase asserts claims of assault and battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil RICO liability, civil RICO conspiracy, civil conspiracy, tortious interference with contracts, business disparagement, unjust enrichment and invasion of privacy.

He is seeking at least $75,000 in damages but says the incident cost him more than $13 million in future employment. He is seeking treble, or triple, damages, which could amount to $39.8 million.