Former YouTuber EDP455 has been arrested and charged with several felony sex crimes after statements he made in a YouTube documentary.
Bryant Turhanemmerson Moreland was arrested in Las Vegas on Nov. 4 and charged in California with four felonies. His charges include attempting to commit 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, according to Kern County court records viewed by USA TODAY.
The charges come after a 2021 incident involving a child under 14, seemingly related to his infamous run-in with YouTube "predator catchers," according to a release from the county district attorney's office. Moreland was arrested, but
the office said it investigated the incident at the time and could not move forward "due to the lack of cooperation from the reporting parties," until Moreland's statements in the YouTube documentary "The Sick Mind of EDP445."
"In light of recent statements made by Moreland in the documentary, the Kern [County] District Attorney's Office and the Kern County [Sheriff's] Office reopened the investigation," the office said. "Following its review of the new evidence, the District Attorney's Office determined that the evidentiary threshold for filing criminal charges had been met."
Public outcry against Moreland – who, at his height, had over 4 million YouTube subscribers before the platform terminated his account – was prompted by Alex Rosen's viral 2021 sting operation, when Moreland responded to a decoy account posing as a 13-year-old girl named "Sophie."
The documentary, released in August, includes shocking statements by Moreland, who participates significantly in the film, while acknowledging sexual communications with children. The film describes Moreland's pedophilic attraction, contradictory attempts at accountability and a detailed walkthrough of his actions that led to the infamous YouTuber amateur sting operation and eventually his arrest.
"I knew that it was wrong. I knew that it was something that was highly illegal that shouldn't be done," Moreland says at one point in the documentary regarding the 2021 incident. "I was clearly aware of the law and I was clearly aware of what I was doing."
He continued, "I felt bad and at the same time, she was like the only person that was really giving me that sort of attention."
While Moreland acknowledges his actions in the documentary, he said the reason he was never investigated was that Rosen "botched" the operation. "I'm a free man," he said.
Michael Pariente, an attorney interviewed in the documentary, warned of Moreland's participation in the film, "There's definitely a chance that he faces criminal prosecution. I think what he's doing now by quite frankly doing this documentary, it's just a stupid … idea."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: YouTuber charged with sex crimes after shocking documentary revelations
