Predator patrol: Bikers snare local man in recorded sting
WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD — A self-described predator-loathing motorcyclist helped snag a West Michigan man who thought he was hooking up with an 11-year-old girl for sex at a popular suburban park, court records show.
The encounter, recorded and posted to social media by Bikers Against Predators, led to six felony charges against Donnell David Rosales. They include accosting children for immoral purposes and child sexually abusive activity.
“Our mission is to get these predators off the street,” Bikers Against Predators President Robert Bloom said in a phone interview from his home in Indiana. “We target online child predators.”
Going by the name “Boots,” Bloom said his organization has caught and exposed more than 220 online child predators, including several in Michigan. It is an established practice used here before, and one that has made law enforcement uncomfortable.
“We are not going to endorse or encourage this, but given the circumstances of this case, it had merit,” Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said.
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The circumstances are spelled out in a 27-minute video posted to Facebook by Bikers Against Predators and in records at Wyoming District Court.
Rosales came to Pinery Park on Aug. 11, “intending to meet an 11-year-old for sex,” a Wyoming police officer wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
Bloom established a profile on a dating website, and in the profile, posed as an 11-year-old girl, according to court records and an interview with Bloom.
“My name is Boots. I run Bikers Against Predators. You’re live right now with over 2,000 people that’s going to spread through this Grand Rapids area,” Bloom says in the August video posted to Facebook. “We did let law enforcement know. We’re going to show them all the evidence.”
Moments later, three Wyoming police officers come into camera view and place Rosales in handcuffs.
“Defendant asked about incest and inbreeding and also asked for nude photos,” a police officer wrote in a probable cause affidavit. “Defendant arranged to meet the girl at the park for sex and he showed up at the agreed time.”
Police seized the defendant’s phones “and nude photos of young girls were located on the devices,” court records show.
“Defendant had numerous chats with similar content about incest, inbreeding, having sex with young girls, getting them pregnant and then having sex with the babies,” the Wyoming officer wrote.
Criminal charges were authorized a week after the park encounter, but it would be months before Rosales faced a judge in Kent County.
“He skipped town and he went to West Virginia and he hit up one of our decoy pages that we had there,” Bloom said. “He was trying to meet up with a 12-year-old; all the same stuff.”
The West Virginia encounter, he said, was in late December. Bloom said he notified police there about the case in Michigan. Rosales was booked into the Kent County jail on Jan. 17.
Rosales appeared in Wyoming District Court for a probable cause conference on Wednesday. The judge authorized a competency evaluation to determine if Rosales understands the charges against him and can assist in his own defense.
Rosales, 33, remains locked up on a $100,000 bond. His attorney declined comment.
Bloom said his organization, which has about 10 members, has conducted investigations in numerous states, including California, Florida, North Carolina, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin.
“Our mission is simple,” he said. “We do this to expose these sick individuals who feel they have some right to do as they please.”
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The practice is controversial, to be sure. In 2016, a then-23-year-old Grand Rapids man conducted sting operations on men who responded to his social media posts in which he posed as a teenage girl. Though several men were charged, then-Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth sent Zach Sweers a letter, essentially telling him to knock it off. Three years later, that message was reiterated in a statement from the state Attorney General’s Office and Michigan State Police.
“It is reckless and dangerous for residents to take matters of law enforcement into their own hands,” the statement said in part.
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Bloom said his organization cooperates with law enforcement, and ensures encounters are recorded. Its work led to several arrests in Michigan, Bloom said, including a teacher at Brandywine Community Schools in Niles. In that 2021 case, the man was sentenced to three years of probation for sending sexual text messages to a person he believed to be a 14-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty to accosting a child for immoral purposes.
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