BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 A new documentary about former internet personality Bryant Moreland, once known online as EDP445, has prompted the Kern County District Attorney\u2019s Office to re-examine a Bakersfield sting operation from April 2021 in which Moreland believed he was communicating with a 13-year-old girl.<\/p>\n
Moreland first made headlines five years ago after an internet-led sting operation in Bakersfield involved a decoy, not an actual 13-year-old girl. Moreland was never charged in connection with that sting.<\/p>\n
Now, the recently released documentary, The Sick Mind of EDP445, examines the rise and fall of Moreland, who grew up in Bakersfield. The film includes an interview with \u201cTo Catch a Predator\u201d host Chris Hansen and focuses in part on how Hansen\u2019s show inspired a wave of YouTube sting operations, including the 2021 Bakersfield operation involving Moreland.<\/p>\n
In one clip shown from the documentary, Hansen asks, \u201cYou were trying to have sex with a 13-year-old girl?\u201d Moreland responds, \u201cFor the most part, yep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Director Mike Clum said the 2021 sting became a major online story. \u201cSo you can only imagine the catch in 2021 in Bakersfield was a massive story all over social media,\u201d Clum said. \u201cIt was the most discussed thing on the internet for a month two months three months EDP was it was banned on every platform is a huge YouTube channel with I believe almost five million subscribers was deleted and banned.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film shows YouTuber Alex Rosen messaging Moreland while posing as a 13-year-old girl in April 2021. It also includes video of Moreland arriving at a Bakersfield apartment complex, where he is confronted by Rosen and others involved in the sting. The documentary also shows screenshots of sexually explicit messages and photos, which the film identifies as material sent by Moreland to the decoy.<\/p>\n
Clum said Moreland did not face legal consequences because of how the sting was handled. \u201cSo while he didn’t face any Legal consequences due to the way the sting operation was handled and He received a massive amount of public backlash Was getting fired from jobs,\u201d Clum said.<\/p>\n
Clum said he reached out to the Kern County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Kern County District Attorney\u2019s Office, but neither agreed to appear in the documentary.<\/p>\n
The documentary also includes Moreland discussing sexual feelings toward minors, including a person he says was 15 years old in 2023. In the film, Moreland also discusses sending that person explicit photos and videos. Clum said the documentary presented information that had already been widely discussed online. \u201cIt is fairly shocking to hear presented in such a direct way,\u201d Clum said. \u201cBut I think that, you know, what EDP did in 2021 and again in 2023 was pretty well documented online. And really, I thought that kind of telling his story only made sense to give him to express his true views that he admitted at the time and again, said it on camera for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district attorney\u2019s office said it is now reviewing the case again. In a statement, the office said: \u201cWe are re-examining the case in light of the statements made by the suspect in the documentary.”<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office said it is not currently investigating unless new information emerges. \u201cWe are aware of the documentary produced by Mike Clum about this case; however, at this time, we are not actively investigating the matter unless additional information becomes available,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
The district attorney\u2019s office previously said it requested more information on the case in January 2022, but that information was never resubmitted. The sheriff\u2019s office later said investigators did not receive enough evidence or cooperation from those involved in the case.<\/p>\n
The Kern County District Attorney\u2019s Office did not answer questions about whether the statute of limitations could affect any potential prosecution.<\/p>\n
All proceeds from the documentary will go to RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 A new documentary about former internet personality Bryant Moreland, once known online as EDP445,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-436877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}