Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.oxygen.com
YouTuber EDP445 is facing criminal charges after candidly confessing on camera to trying to have sex with a 13-year-old girl.
The Kern County District Attorney’s Office announced that Bryant Turhanemmerson Moreland—known on YouTube as EDP445—has been taken into custody after making the startling statements in director Mike Clum’s documentary The Sick Mind of EDP445.
The charges against Moreland include attempt to commit lewd acts on a child, meeting a minor for lewd purposes, contact minor with intent to commit sexual offense and distributing or showing pornography to a minor.
“The charges stem from an alleged incident involving a child under 14 years old that occurred on April 17, 2021,” prosecutors said. “When the Kern County District Attorney’s Office initially reviewed the incident in 2021 and 2022, there were significant challenges in pursuing prosecution, particularly due to the lack of cooperation from the reporting parties.”
Yet that changed after Moreland agreed to participate in the documentary, released on YouTube in August, and admitted to trying to meet the supposed teen for sex.
“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,” authorities continued. “Following its review of the new evidence, the District Attorney’s Office determined that the evidentiary threshold for filing criminal charges had been met.”
Moreland was taken into custody in Las Vegas and is expected to be extradited to California. He has yet to be arraigned or enter a plea on the charges against him.
Bryant Moreland, a.k.a EDP445, Was Allegedly Caught in YouTube Sting
The documentary explored an incident in 2021 in which Moreland was caught up in an amateur sting operation by an adult YouTuber posing as a 13-year-old girl named “Sophie.”
After prosecutors opted not to pursue charges in the case, Moreland agreed to sit down with journalist and former To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen for a candid conversation included in the documentary.
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Hansen later released the full interview on his YouTube podcast Have a Seat with Chris Hansen.
“I showed up to that location that day um, trying to, um, obviously, meet up with an underage girl,” Moreland told Hansen. “I guess you can say, um, I don’t know. Um, trying to have sex.”
When Hansen responded by telling him the act was “predatory,” Moreland responded, “Right, I understand.”
“I’m trying to get people to understand,” he said, “you know, where I was in that state of mind at that time.”
Moreland went on to add that after finding success on YouTube, “the power kind of gets to your head,” leading him to believe that “you can’t be touched.”
“That’s pretty much why I showed up,” he said. “Very lonely, um, didn’t really have any anybody to interact with, you know what I mean?”
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Moreland added in the documentary, per USA Today, that he “knew that it was wrong.”
“I knew that it was something that was highly illegal that shouldn’t be done,” he said. “I was clearly aware of the law and I was clearly aware of what I was doing.”
While he admitted that he “felt bad,” he also said that “she was like the only person that was really giving me that sort of attention.”
Attorney Michael Pariente also appeared in the documentary, cautioning at the time that Moreland’s participation in the film could lead to eventual criminal charges.
“There’s definitely a chance that he faces criminal prosecution,” Pariente said. “I think what he’s doing now by quite frankly doing this documentary, it’s just a stupid … idea.”
Pariente—who does not represent Moreland and has never met him—told Oxygen after the arrest that Moreland’s participation in the documentary had been a risky move because the state statute of limitations had not run out.
“He would never have been prosecuted,” Pariente said of the state-level charges, “if he’d just kept his mouth shut.”
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A defense would have been easier to mount, he continued, if Moreland had not participated in documentary, since charges would have relied on the amateur sting operator who’d allegedly caught him in the act.
“Because of Mike Clum’s documentary,” Pariente said, “he’s made the case for the state to convict him.”
Moreland is expected to be appear for a hearing in Las Vegas on Nov. 9, at which point, Pariente said he’ll likely be extradited back to Kern County to face charges.
It’s unclear whether Moreland has retained an attorney.
