SUPERIOR, Wis. – Charges allege an unnamed citizen group from Illinois reported the man to Superior Police, after catching him in an online predator sting.
On Tuesday, 62-year-old Joey Edward Scott was charged in a Douglas County courtroom with four counts of possession of child pornography.
Superior Police originally responded to Scott’s apartment on Apr. 2, following a report from a caller who told police he was “associated with a citizen group from Illinois that attempts to catch child predators.” He said his partner, who “had been messaging with a Superior resident named Joey Scott…posing as an underage girl, age 13,” was at Scott’s apartment to confront him.
Officers responded to the apartment and spoke with the caller’s partner, Aaron Snidle. According to the criminal complaint, Snidle told officers he communicated with Scott using a decoy account on the app Telegram. Videos he provided to officers allegedly showed him being let into the apartment building and speaking with Scott’s brother at the door to the apartment.
The video shows Snidle being let in and he then “speaks to (Scott) and brings up that he wants to talk to him, and he has a stack of papers. He brings up the name of the person (Scott) was chatting with online. (Scott) said he just talks to the girls he met online and he does not meet them. (Snidle) suggests he wants to get (Scott) help. At one point (Scott) shows (Snidle) his phone and shows videos of what appeared to be an underage girl based on (Snidle)’s reaction. Officers then arrived.”
Officers asked Scott “if anything (Snidle) had said was untrue. (Scott) shook his head, indicating no.” Scott willingly provided his phone to the police for a forensic analysis.
On Scott’s phone, police claimed they found illicit conversations with other underage girls and over 100 examples of suspected child pornography. Scott regularly used multiple apps including Telegram and Facebook.