Wayne County man arrested on pedophilia charges after 'Predator Poachers' set up
UNIONDALE — A Uniondale man has been arrested after an online 'Predator Poacher' set up.
Wayne County District Attorney AG Howell announced the arrest of James Burrows, 48, on Monday.
Burrows was charged with felonies including Unlawful Contact with Minor— Sexual Offenses, Criminal Use of Communication Facility, and Corruption of Minors. He had been previously charged with the same offenses regarding a separate incident on November 1, 2021.
The arrest followed a tip given to Pennsylvania State Police from civilian Alex Rosen of the YouTube channel, PP Official.
Rosen travels around the country with a team calling themselves "Predator Poachers." They expose child predators and film their interactions with them to post on YouTube. To catch said predators, Rosen and his colleagues pose as minors online and engage in conversations with individuals looking for child pornography or to engage in sexual activities with minors.
According to arrest paperwork, the incident regarding Burrows took place on October 4. "Rosen related they came... to make contact with Burrows," states the affidavit. "Rosen related that Burrows has been in contact with what he thought was a 14-year-old female via Facebook and text messaging, but the 14-year-old girl was in fact a partner of the PP Official YouTube Channel, pretending to be the 14-year-old with a fake account. Rosen related that Burrows has been messaging the 14-year-old for a couple weeks. Rosen related that they did confront Burrows and he did admit to contacting the female."
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The affidavit states Rosen later sent a copy of the video to PSP.
Rosen's video confrontation with Burrows, over an hour in length, is available online.
In the video, Rosen asks Burrows a series of questions regarding the alleged interactions, fishing for details on what was sent and what was asked for, as well as asking Burrows to explain his alleged actions.
The PSP affidavit asserts that Burrows made contact with Rosen's decoy on September 20, 2021, asking how old she was within four messages. Burrows allegedly continued his correspondence after learning the decoy was 14, asking various lewd questions and sending questionable material to what he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
According to a second affidavit relating to the arrest, PSP was tipped off by Detective Aaron Wojtkowski of the Newbury Police Department, the Massachusetts Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, and a part time member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Taskforce.
According to the PSP affidavit, Wojtkowski was working undercover in April 2021 to catch perpetrators searching online for child pornography or to entice sexual interaction with children when he made contact with Burrows. Burrows allegedly solicited sexual content from what he believed to be a 13-year-old girl over the course of several dates and times.
As of the time of writing, Burrows' date to appear in Central Court is yet to be set by the Magisterial District Judge.
Regarding the charges filed against him in November, Burrows' formal arraignment was held on Jan. 5. Court papers show his charges were waived for court. No further action is listed on the docket at this time and the case is regarded as "closed."
In 2014, Burrows pleaded guilty to a corruption of minors charge and was sentenced to jail for between a minimum of 2 months and 15 days, up to a maximum of 23 months.
This article originally appeared on Tri-County Independent: Police arrest Uniondale man on pedophilia charges after online set up
