LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Alex Rosen, founder of the online group Predator Poachers, said his team shared chat records and account access with Kern County investigators in California after a 2021 sting in Bakersfield involving former YouTube personality Bryant Moreland, known online as EDP445.Rosen’s account conflicts with the Kern County District Attorney’s Office, which stated in a release that its earlier review faced significant challenges, particularly a lack of cooperation from reporting parties. The office said it and the Kern County Sheriff’s Office reopened the investigation after reviewing statements Moreland made in filmmaker Mike Clum’s documentary, The Sick Mind of EDP445 that was released this year.Rosen, who spoke in the documentary, told News 3 that his group stayed in touch with a Kern County sheriff’s investigator for several weeks after the 2021 sting operation and turned over its chat messages. He said the investigator also requested records from Instagram. “We did cooperate,” Rosen told News 3’s Cristen Drummond, disputing the DA’s statement.“We gave him (investigator) access to all of the accounts. He even did a preservation request, like he sent a subpoena to Instagram, and Instagram came back with those records of the preserved accounts. So, they had everything they needed in order to prosecute this guy.”Rosen shared screenshots of emails to News 3 to show the communication. One email dated May 13, 2021, shows the investigator wanting to confirm several details from the account:The account name changing and when it was changedConfirming the time zone of the decoy accountWere any part of the conversation deletedConfirming the dates of conversationIf any of Moreland’s accounts blockedConversations between the decoy account and other account.Rosen responded that Moreland unsent and deleted explicit content he sent on the alternative accounts he messaged on and that he was unsure of the username change but wrote “sometime after the catch, for sure.”Prosecutors shared a statement this week that the Kern County District Attorney’s Office filed four felony charges on Nov. 2 for attempted 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. Prosecutors said the charges stem from an alleged incident on April 17, 2021, involving a child under 14.Video posted by Predator Poachers shows the group confronting Moreland at a Bakersfield apartment complex in 2021. Rosen told News 3 that the group had used an online decoy posing as a 13-year-old girl and said Moreland came to meet her. In the video, Moreland confirms the person was 13 and acknowledged sexual content in their messages.The video was uploaded online five years ago, leading to Moreland being banned from social media platforms but the case was never pursued legally by prosecutors until the release of the documentary in 2026. Moreland was arrested in Henderson on Wednesday. Video posted by content creator JiDion shows Henderson police taking him into custody outside a dialysis center on the 2300 block of Corporate Circle. Moreland was booked into the Clark County Detention Center due to his medical needs according to Henderson Police.Rosen said Predator Poachers works with law enforcement agencies around the country and has assisted with arrests.“Kern County and EDP, they pick and choose when to enforce the law,” Rosen said. “This is not most counties. This is some counties.”Journalist Chris Hansen, who once hosted the NBC series “To Catch a Predator”, interviewed Moreland for Clum’s documentary and said outside sting operations can raise questions when prosecutors review evidence.“Some of these people also come from perhaps a background that gives them some legitimacy, but others come from more of a prankster world, right?” Hansen said. “And so that’s just their background. That’s how they approach things and sometimes I think in those cases, when somebody is exposed, it makes it more difficult to get a prosecution.”Hansen said his own investigations as seen on “Takedown with Chris Hansen” involve police from the beginning, which he said helps maintain a “clean chain of custody.”Rosen said his group documents their actions for law enforcement and prosecutors to use as evidence.“We simply record evidence of crimes and turn it into law enforcement, which makes us totally not vigilantes,” Rosen said. “This year we have done 295 of these busts and we’re on pace for over 300, obviously this year.”Moreland is expected to appear in a Las Vegas court Monday as extradition proceedings move forward.“We’re looking very forward to assisting in his prosecution in any way possible,” Rosen said.The Kern County DA’s Office said an arraignment will be scheduled after Moreland’s return to California.
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