KINGSTON, Pa. — The arrests of several men on Tuesday from as far away as Lebanon County started after the self-proclaimed "Luzerne County Predator Catcher" Musa Harris turned over evidence to detectives in Kingston that they were able to then turn into arrest warrants.
All-day in Kingston, members of the police department brought in alleged child predators to the station to face charges.
"Attempted unlawful contact with minors is the primary charge that we brought," said Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce.
"We reviewed numerous, numerous cases, and the cases that we have brought to the table today were our cases that we knew were great cases, solid cases, and we were going to be able to prosecute those individuals," said Kingston Police Chief Richard Kotchik.
Six of the nine men police are after have been arrested or are in custody, including:
- George Fies
- Christopher Santo
- Michael Halye
- Zachary Mitchell
- Sean Lewandowski
- John Davenport.
Police are still working to take Christopher Mazzino and William Lewis, and one other they are not identifying into custody.
Mazzino was a Valley View School District administrator who resigned after the video of him surfaced of him allegedly attempting to meet up with someone he thought was a 15-year-old boy.
While these arrests were brought about by the work of detectives and the Special Victims Unit in Kingston, investigators tell Newswatch 16 some evidence in all these cases was brought to their attention by Musa Harris, the self-proclaimed "Luzerne County Predator Catcher," who poses as underaged people online and meets people hoping to expose them.
"Once Det. Gibson got the case, he would then review, and he would have to do his own investigation in order to make sure that the case was solid and we can make an arrest and prosecute the arrest," Chief Kotchik said.
Police do not encourage Harris or anyone else to do what he does online.
"We'd asked other people not endeavor to make these make these things public, make this kind of contact. If you have any information about child predators, please contact your local police. We'll get involved right away, and we'll do what we can to make sure that that stops immediately," Sanguedolce advised.
Harris tells Newswatch 16 he understands why.
"Absolutely, it's very dangerous. Yeah, it's very dangerous."
But Harris says seeing the men arrested provides him with a sense of gratification.
"It feels like my work don't go on in vain, and it's something that's going on with it."
Harris says he plans to continue his "predator catcher" efforts, even though police and prosecutors say it is not something the public should be doing.
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