YouTuber Bryant Moreland, known online as EDP445, has been arrested in Las Vegas and charged with sex offences after allegedly attempting to meet a 13-year-old girl for sex during a sting operation.
Moreland was detained on Wednesday and is due to be extradited to Kern County, California, the Kern County District Attorney’s Office said.
Court documents say he faces charges including attempted lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, meeting with a minor for lewd purposes, contacting a minor with the intention of committing a sexual offence, and sending content intended to seduce a minor.
The allegations were detailed in the documentary The Sick Mind of EDP445, which examined the sting operation. Moreland believed he was meeting a 13-year-old girl, but was instead confronted by an adult YouTuber.
In an interview with Chris Hansen for his Have a Seat podcast in August, which was later featured in the documentary, Moreland appeared to acknowledge what he had been attempting to do.
“I showed up to that location that day trying to obviously meet up with an underage girl. You know what I mean? And I guess you can say …. I don’t know … trying to have sex,” he said.
The Kern County District Attorney’s Office said the comments prompted it and the Kern County Sheriff’s Office to reopen the investigation. It said a review of the new evidence found that the threshold for bringing criminal charges had been met.
Hansen said Moreland’s admission during their interview was sufficient for prosecutors to obtain an arrest warrant.
JiDion, one of the YouTubers involved in organising the sting, shared footage appearing to show Moreland’s arrest outside a dialysis centre, with several officers present.
