Two more men are facing charges for allegedly messaging and sending explicit photos to someone they thought was a 15-year-old girl.
In the past month, 814 Pred Hunters, a local group, has been using a decoy online pretending to be a young girl and answering messages from older men.
If the messages escalate into sexual content and the men ask to meet for a sexual encounter, the group shows up at the meeting spot and confronts them.
At least eight cases based on their actions have been filed in Clearfield County.
On Wednesday, Kyle Michael Logan, 35, of DuBois was charged by DuBois City police with felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, unlawful contact with minor, criminal use of communication, and endangering the welfare of a child, along with misdemeanor indecent assault person less than 16.
He is being held on $75,000 bail. His preliminary hearing is set for Nov. 4 at the district judge’s office in DuBois.
Cody Clair Fye, 24, of Weedville, was charged Wednesday by Clearfield Borough police with felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with minor, aggravated indecent assault, corruption of minors, and criminal use of communication facility, as well as misdemeanor counts of indecent assault person less than 16.
He is in the county jail in lieu of $75,000. Fye’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 2 during centralized court at the county jail.
The charges in these cases are more serious than the previous cases, and when asked about this, District Attorney Ryan Sayers said the charges will be modified later to show these were attempted offenses.
Logan’s criminal complaint details how the group tried to make contact with him in a parking lot off Sunflower Drive in DuBois. He arrived pushing a six-month-old child in a stroller.
When he saw additional people getting out of their vehicles, he fled. As he ran, “he was running recklessly to the degree that he almost dumped the child out of the stroller several times and the child was bouncing around in the stroller.”
The group said he ran down a hill and out of their sight. Those watching were concerned about the welfare of the child who almost fell out onto the black top.
They were able to tell police which house they believed he went inside of a building on Sunflower Drive.
In addition to a binder with copies of the conversations he had with the decoy, they provided police with video of their encounter in the parking lot.
Later police located Logan and took him to the police station to speak with them.
During their conversation, Logan allegedly admitted to talking to the girl and said the explicit sexual messages in the binder were from him.
He also admitted to running with the baby, police said.
According to the affidavit in the Fye case, the group arranged to meet him at the skate park near Mill Road on Oct. 25.
He had been messaging her since Oct. 24, a member of the group said and provided police with a binder of their exchanges.
In these messages, Fye allegedly described sexual acts he wanted to do with the girl even though he was aware she was only 15 years old.
In an interview with police, he reportedly admitted to the conversations and confirmed he wanted to meet the girl to have sex. He also stated that he should have not continued to talk with her after she told him her age.
Fye told investigators he is on probation and the accelerated rehabilitative disposition program for a similar incident in Elk County.