Michael Meyers

**Michael Meyers** is a suspected predator caught in a KBI sting in connection with the Bowling Green, Kentucky edition of To Catch a Predator.

## Biography

Michael Meyers, 24, initially began communicating with a Perverted Justice decoy posing as "Jessica", a thirteen-year-old girl. Meyers made his intentions quite obvious by approaching the girl for sex six minutes into their conversation. He called the girl "jailbait" and wanted to call her to make sure she wasn't a police officer, fully aware that what he was doing was against the law. He compared oral sex to "sucking on a lollipop" and said he wanted the girl to dress like Britney Spears schoolgirl video.

## Behind the scenes

When Meyers arrived at the sting house, the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation took him into custody right away. Meyers told detective John Sparks during his police interrogation that he struck up a conversation with the girl because she seemed "nice" and he hadn't had a girlfriend in a while. He insisted that it was his first time engaging in conversation and attempting to meet a minor for sex. For his crimes, Meyers was sentenced to five years in state prison, five years of probation, and 20 years as a registered sex offender.

Meyers was charged with possessing material depicting a sexual act by a child in 2009 after an investigation by Kathryn Reed, a cybercrime investigator at the Attorney General's office. Meyers was a member of the 160th Special Operations Unit stationed in Fort Campbell. According to Reed's testimony, she found a Kentucky IP address linked to sharing or advertising files that had phrases related to child pornography. The files were downloaded via the now-defunct third-party tool Limewire. The Limewire program's downloads, according to Reed, are initiated by users. When Reed connected her computer to the suspected one, she discovered 28 files with names referring to child pornography.

She was able to download two of the files from the IP address, and the jury was later shown the pictures they contained. The internet service provider confirmed that Meyers was the owner of the IP address in response to a subpoena. Reed acquired a warrant for a search. On September 29, 2009, she went to Meyers' house to serve the warrant and informed him they were looking for a computer with child pornographic photos. Meyers informed Reed that he was aware of the missing computer and that it belonged to him. He informed them that they would find certain photographs on the computer and that he was aware that it contained child pornography.

Bill Baker, a licensed forensic investigator with the Attorney General's office, gave testimony about pictures he was able to recover from a hard drive that had been transferred from Meyers' computer. He showed the jurors two child pornographic still photographs that he had retrieved from Meyers' recycle bin and claimed to have discovered other, related files, including 25 films, in recovered folders made by his forensic software. Meyers stated in court that he had served in Iraq and Afghanistan before returning in April 2009. Other soldiers told him about Limewire while he was serving overseas as a source of free music and porn. He set up Limewire on his PC when he got back to Fort Campbell. He claimed that although child pornography occasionally appeared when he searched Limewire, it was usually adult pornography. The child pornography, he claimed, had been removed.

He admitted to his sergeant that he had child pornography on his computer at the end of August 2009. His sergeant instructed Meyers to take it out. Meyers arranged for his stepfather to remove the pornography from the computer despite his testimony that he is not "computer savvy." Meyers further stated that the computer was available for use by anyone in the two-bedroom home that he, his roommate, and his roommate's girlfriend shared. In response, Reed claimed that Limewire was not configured to permit someone else to download anything onto a computer, in contrast to Meyers' evidence that the child pornography appeared on his computer through Limewire without his authorization. According to her, Limewire requires a three-way "handshake," in which one computer puts out a request, another computer answers by indicating that it is present and listening, and the first machine then specifies what it wishes to receive after getting the response.

Meyers was sentenced to a probationary sentence of one year on each count, to be served concurrently, after a jury found him guilty on twelve counts of possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor. Meyers filed a notice of appeal in response to the final judgment, claiming he was entitled to a directed verdict of acquittal. Meyers contends that on September 29, 2009, the day the search warrant was carried out and he was detained, he had thoroughly cleaned his computer so that no "normal person" could find anything potentially damning on it and that the photographs could only be recovered by professionals. He cites Reed and Baker's testimony that no "normal person" could have known whether there was child pornography on the computer on that particular day. The Christian Circuit Court upheld both his appeal and sentence.

## Trivia

-Myers shares the same exact name as the fictional character from the horror film franchise Halloween

## References

1. ↑ http://www.perverted-justice.com/?con=michaelmeyer2448
2. ↑ https://dairystatedegenerates.blogspot.com/2021/04/to-catch-predator-update-northern.html
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 https://law.justia.com/cases/kentucky/court-of-appeals/2014/2013-ca-000077-mr.html