Bryant Turhan Emmerson Moreland, the YouTuber known online as EDP445, has been charged with multiple felonies in Bakersfield tied to an alleged 2021 attempt to meet an underage girl for sex, according to court records. Moreland was arrested in Las Vegas, with assistance from the Las Vegas Police Department, and will be transported to Kern County, according to a Kern County District Attorney’s Office release.
The Kern County District Attorney’s Office issued a press release about the charges. According to court records cited by KGET 17 News, Moreland was charged with attempted lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, going to an arranged meeting with a minor, contacting a minor with sexual intent, and sending pornography with intent to seduce a minor.
Moreland became known online for rant videos, mostly centered on the Philadelphia Eagles, before his channel became entangled in allegations stemming from a 2021 vigilante sting. That operation allegedly set up a meeting between Moreland and someone posing online as a 13-year-old girl at the Pineridge Apartment Complex in east Bakersfield, per KGET. BakersfieldNow has reported that the sting involved a decoy rather than an actual 13-year-old.
A Documentary Reopens an Old Case
The case had gone cold for years. Prosecutors said the investigation stalled back in 2021 because reporting parties did not cooperate, and the station's report notes the District Attorney's Office had requested additional information in January 2022 that was never resubmitted. The Kern County Sheriff's Office said in August that it was not actively investigating the matter unless new information surfaced.
That changed after a documentary called The Sick Mind of EDP445 was released this year, examining the 2021 incident and one of the two vigilante sting operations targeting Moreland. In the film, Moreland sat down with Chris Hansen, long known for his own sting-style confrontations, and made statements prosecutors say gave them what they needed to move forward. “I showed up that day trying to meet up with an underage girl,” Moreland told Hansen, according to KGET.
Prosecutors Cite New Evidence From the Film
After the documentary's release, the District Attorney's Office said it was re-examining Moreland's case in light of his on-camera statements. In August, the office said, “We are re-examining the case in light of the statements made by the suspect in the documentary,” per BakersfieldNow. Prosecutors have since said that Moreland's own statements provided the evidence needed, and that the office determined the evidentiary threshold for filing criminal charges had been met after reviewing the new material.
Mike Clum, producer and director of the documentary, told 17 News that all proceeds from the film were being donated to RAINN, which he described as the largest nonprofit helping victims of sexual violence.
Past Allegations and Warnings From Police
Moreland's run-ins with online sting operations predate the 2021 incident. A 2020 report from VladTV said he was catfished by someone posing as a 17-year-old girl that October. During the earlier 2021 allegations, Bakersfield police Sgt. Robert Pair warned that civilian sting operations could endanger bystanders and interfere with law enforcement's own investigations, a caution that has lingered over the case as it moved from internet controversy to criminal filing.
