KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — Three Kalamazoo men arrested this month by the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office tried to arrange to meet with a 15-year-old girl for sex when they were actually speaking with an undercover officer, court documents show.
The documents say the undercover detective was in contact with Paul Drummond and Brandon Moore on an app called MeetMe and John Morrill on Whisper and also talked to the suspects via text. In each case, authorities say, the men acknowledged they wanted to meet the person they thought was a teen for sex and Morrill planned to pick her up to take her to his house.
Drummond and Moore were arrested at a park in Comstock Township and Morrill at a liquor store on Milham Avenue in Portage.
Drummond, 58, who goes by Gene, was placed on leave from his job as a bus driver for Portage Public Schools after the district became aware of the case against him.
He, Moore, 37, and Morrill, 50, are among six men arrested since May for allegedly soliciting teens, all netted by the Kalamazoo Human Oppression Strike Team, or KHOST, using undercover officers pretending to be teens online.
“Once they have connected, the innocent conversations can turn to explicit questions and propositions,” Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller explained at a news conference Friday. “Sadly, that’s what we find on a regular basis.”
The men were each charged with accosting a child for immoral purposes and computer crimes.
The other three suspects — Alexander Bogdan, 33, of Martin; Joshua Knapp, 43, of Wayland; and Brian Malone, 39, of Byron Center — have been bound over to circuit court to stand trial.
