{"id":284108,"date":"2026-09-11T22:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/284108\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T22:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:52:14","slug":"westmoreland-county-da-clashes-with-predator-hunters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/284108\/","title":{"rendered":"Westmoreland County DA clashes with predator hunters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania predator hunters group says Westmoreland County DA refuses to work with them<\/p>\n

\"Brian<\/a>WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n

A group dedicated to exposing online child predators to their communities is clashing with a Pennsylvania county district attorney. <\/p>\n

814PredHunters led a protest outside the Westmoreland County Courthouse this week. <\/p>\n

WGAL News 8 has previously covered the efforts of the 814PredHunters group. <\/p>\n

The group is known for setting up potential child predators for meet-ups where law enforcement is present. <\/p>\n

Organizers say they have never had an arrest made with their efforts in Westmoreland County, saying the DA refuses to work with them. <\/p>\n

“They want change here. They don’t believe that she’s fulfilling the jobs of Westmoreland County DA. At the end of the day, I have to agree with them. There have been multiple, actual victims that, in my eyes, have not gotten justice,” said 814PredHunters Founder Brian Knepp. <\/p>\n

Knepp is referring to a case involving David Landman, who, in 2022, was accused by the Greensburg Police of sexually abusing a five-year-old-girl. Landman agreed to a plea deal<\/a> with District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli’s office less than two weeks ago. <\/p>\n

Knepp added that his group has tried several times to bring evidence to the DA about potential predators in the area, but the two sides have never worked together on an arrest. <\/p>\n

“Not every conviction, trial, or plea are what we envision as a successful outcome, but each case is unique given the evidence and cards we are dealt,” said Ziccarelli in a statement. “How do we strategically prosecute this case, ensure accountability and protect this victim? Would a swing and a miss on a case ending in a mistrial be justice for our victim? We don’t think so.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania predator hunters group says Westmoreland County DA refuses to work with them WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. \u2014 A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[24427,118499,24428,3643,2675,79772,23106,118494,624,118503,16197,3231,819,111183,107,740,118501,1856,118492,62645,28,30,29,84492,118500,118502,118497,4525,118495,5865,5910,118493,118496,118498,2812],"class_list":["post-284108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-814predhunters","tag-actual-victim","tag-brian-knepp","tag-case","tag-child-abuse","tag-child-predators","tag-criminal-case","tag-david-landman","tag-district-attorney","tag-district-attorney-nicole-ziccarelli","tag-effort","tag-evidence","tag-greensburg","tag-greensburg-police","tag-group","tag-justice","tag-knepp","tag-law-enforcement","tag-nicole-ziccarelli","tag-online-predators","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-plea-deal","tag-potential-child-predator","tag-predator-hunter","tag-predator-hunters","tag-protest","tag-victim-justice","tag-week","tag-westmoreland-county","tag-westmoreland-county-courthouse","tag-westmoreland-county-da","tag-westmoreland-county-da-clash","tag-wgal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}