A 21-year-old man from Red Bud voluntarily dismissed his defamation lawsuit against a local vigilante group that accused him of communicating online with a woman he thought was a 14-year-old girl with the intent of sexual exploitation, according to a press release.
Adrian Collins sought in excess of $50,000 for compensatory damages and in excess of $50,000 for punitive damages because he allegedly lost his job at Red Bud Regional Hospital after KTS Predator Hunters and its leader, Kyle Swanson, posted publicly the communications he had with the supposed social media profile of a 14-year-old, according to media reports.
“The way Adrian chatted with our fake profile of a 14-year-old girl sounded like he was trying to groom her by offering money and telling her not to tell anyone,” Swanson told the Record. “He never really said he wanted to give her alcohol, but he brought up alcohol in his messages.”
Swanson’s organization uses decoy profiles on Facebook of women who are 18 years old but appear much younger.
“Before this lawsuit, we were catching 10 to 15 guys a month, but lately it's been a lot slower because our names have been all over the media,” Swanson said. “Now it seems like these pedophiles know we are out there so it's been harder to catch people.”
Cathy Kovar told the Belleville News-Democrat that Collins is her grandson, that he had not been charged with a crime or investigated by police, and that Collins dropped the lawsuit to stop alleged harassment from KTS followers.
“Actually, it’s the other way around,” Swanson said. “They constantly harassed me, KTS, and everybody who worked for us for six or seven months with lies on Facebook."
Belleville attorney Megan Gilbreth filed the complaint on behalf of Collins. She declined to comment.
Associate Judge Gene Gross granted Collins’ request for dismissal last month but denied his request for a restraining order against Swanson, who said that publicity surrounding the litigation is a double edge sword.
“I had a local chief of police tell me that a couple of guys had turned themselves in because they were afraid they had been chatting with us online,” Swanson said. “The negative is that pedophiles go further underground.”
Swanson added that many police officers are too overworked to engage in the type of monitoring that KTS prioritizes in multiple states.
"Police departments can't get to all these guys and they don't have enough officers or enough funding so we're doing this privately," he said.