The Hockey Mom

0:23 Hey, welcome back to Exposed, Scandalous Files of the Elite. I'm your host, Jim Chapman, and I am doing something a little different today. I decided to drop a bonus episode for all, just on a random day, not on my normal drop day, and this one regards a hockey mom. Now. I released this as a bonus episode on Patreon gosh, probably a year and a half ago. Great episode got a lot of response, but I want people out there to know what you can look forward to if you're a Patreon subscriber, and I thought a cool way to do that would be to drop it on the regular feed so everyone can kind of get an idea of the extras that you get on the Patreon. So this is just a little lane yapp as we say here in Louisiana. Not a normal, typical drop day for Exposed, but something that I thought those of you that are not a subscriber yet on Patreon, you may enjoy hearing a bonus episode that hasn't been released on the regular feed.

1:32 Or you may be a Patreon member who has not caught this episode. It's been quite a while since I put it out so here it is. I hope you enjoy it. It's called the Hockey Mom Much love, and today I'm gonna bring you an absolutely wild story of Alison Shardon, known as the hockey Mom of Minnesota. So I've got to say first and foremost that I can a lot of stories where it's like mom's going wild, right, especially as it relates to the Bad Teachers series, But I do not think I've come across anything quite like this.

2:14 So let's get right into the story. It's kind of a short but sweet one, and it starts in Blaine, Minnesota, where Alison Lee Sharden lives with her two children and husband. Now, a little history on Alison. She was a well known figure in her Minnesota town and very talented, especially in her youth as it related to singing. At the age of seven, she was singing and acting in community theater productions. And I'm not just talking about regular singing. She was a singer in the opera even at an early age. She was so talented, in fact, that she never stopped singing in the opera all the way up to this incident.

3:01 She had a master's degree in music and vocal performance. This was from the University of Minnesota, and really performed in operas all over the state of Minnesota and beyond, and she was, I mean super talented. Now, behind the scenes, life was not as great as it appeared for Allison. In twenty twenty two, she was arrested for DWI. However, that case got dismissed, likely to some pre trial things that she did, but that's just a guess on my part. In December of twenty twenty three, she files for divorce from her husband. Then on January twenty second of twenty twenty four, everything goes downhill. For this check police are called regarding an incident that took place just the week prior.

3:58 Now I have a copy of the probable cause statement from the arrest and its shocking to be quite honest, and here's how it reads. On January twenty second of twenty twenty four, police were notified that an adult female later fully identified as Allison Lee Shardon date of birth eight seven of nineteen eighty five, engaged in criminal sexual conduct with team members from a Colorado sixteen and under hockey team while the team was in Minnesota for a hockey tournament. The crimes occurred the evening of January fourteenth, twenty twenty four into the early morning hours of January fifteenth of twenty twenty four, at a hotel in Ramsey County, Minnesota, where the team was staying during a tournament. Sharden engaged in sexual contact, oral penetration, and digital penetration of a fifteen year old male identified here in as V one, and sexual contact with a different fifteen year old mail identified here in his V two. A sixteen year old mail also identified here in his V three, was present.

5:10 Following a team dinner the evening of January fourteenth of twenty twenty four, members of the Colorado sixteen and underboys hockey team went to the hotel's pool area. When they arrived, Shardon, who had met some of the boys the day before, was in the sauna with members of an eighteen and under team. V one said rather than go to the pool right away, he was in his room packing for their return trip home the next day when he received a photo of Shardon from a teammate with a message telling him, quote you won't believe what happened unquote, and telling him to come down to the pool area and hang with the team. So we did. Shardan left the sauna and got in a hot tub, which the under sixteen boys, including V one, V two, and V three, were hanging around. She was talking with the boys about problems with her husband and said she had cheated on him a few times and had sex a couple of weeks ago before at the hotel with a junior eighteen to twenty year old hockey player. She said she and her husband were trying to work it out, but he hits her. V two said at one point, Shardon's husband came to the pool area and yelled words to the effect of quote, if you don't come upstairs or relationship is over unquote. The boys left the pool area at curfew around twenty two hundred hours, which is ten o'clock y'all, And then later that night, V one, V two, and V three plus one other snuck back down and met

6:42 Shardan back at the pool, her husband came down and started talking about it being the last chance for their marriage. The boys, along with two other teammates, returned to V one's room. Sometime later, Shardon messaged V one via snapchat saying she and her husband had gotten into an argument and asked, quote, can I come into your room? Two of the teammates did not want Shardon coming to the room, but V one said he agreed to let her come in because her husband was abusive and she needed help. Shardon then went into V one's room, and the two other teammates immediately left, leaving V one, V two, and V three alone in the room with her. Once inside the room, Shardon continued to tell the boy she was afraid of her husband. Shardon left briefly at one point, and upon her return, stayed for another hour. Shardon then started talking about sex and stuff. Shardon, V one, and V two ended up in bed together with their backs against the headboard while V three was sitting in a chair, and then moved to the other bed. Shardon continued to ask the boy's sexual questions, including how sexually active they were, and specifically asked V three what sexual things he liked to do with his girlfriend. During their conversation, Shardon asked each one of them how old they were, and they told her their correct ages. They also told her they played for a sixteen and under team. She told them

8:15 that she was thirty eight and they were young enough to be her kids. Shardon told V one and V two that they could quote touch her tits, which they did while still seated between V one and V two. Shardon removes her pants. V two said Sharden told V one to quote explore down there, as she put her hand over his hand and moved it to her vaginal area. V three said he saw both V one and V two touching Shardon between her legs on the vaginal area, but it was under a blanket, so he didn't know exactly what they touched. V three said that Shardon also kissed both V one and V two for a bit, and then asked V two and V three to give her in V one privacy, so V two and V three go into the bathroom. V one said that after V two left his bed, Shardon performed oral sex on him, which he defined as a quote blowjob with her mouth on his penis. V two and V three each said they peeked around the corner from the bathroom and saw Shardon, who was nude, with V one's penis in her mouth.

9:28 V two also said he heard Shardon ask V one to do the same to her, but V one declined. Shardon also asked V one to quote finger her, which V one said meant putting his fingers in her vagina. He said that that happened, but not for very long because he felt very uncomfortable while Shardon was engaging V one in sex acts. V two and V three left the room. As they were leaving, Shardon asked V three if he had a condom, which he he did not. V one said he was thankful because he did not want things to go that far and Shardon was insisting upon them having sex. V one said that Shardan was saying things like, let's just do more, Let's have sex.

10:16 We're already here. You already have a thirty eight year old woman, a female in your bed. Don't you want to do more. V one described feelings stuck in the moment and did not know how to say no. He said that in his head his response was quote not really, but he responded by saying, quote sure, though he wasn't totally on board with it. V one ultimately told Shardon that he had to go to bed because he had a game the next day, and she left. The sixteen and under hockey team had a game at twelve thirty pm on January fifteenth of twenty twenty four. V one said that in between periods, while in the locker room, Shardon texted them to confirm they were playing on a specific rink. They did not want her to come, so they told her they had already lost. Shardon walked in a short time later. V one said they all started getting nervous, and he was shaking on the bench at one point because he wanted to leave what happened the night before in the past, and she was just trying to follow them. It was really creepy, he said. After returning to Colorado, Shardon texted V one saying the words to the effect of quote, I will do or say anything you want, just don't tell the police or report what happened unquote. V one responded that he did not want anything from her, that he wouldn't report it, and that she needed to leave him alone. He then blocked her on his cell phone. V one does not know who made the report to police. V two provided police

11:49 with a message Shardon sent him on Snapchat on January sixteenth, twenty twenty four, at one thirty nine pm, and the message strange. Shardon asked v V two how V one was doing, saying that she hoped he was not mad at her. During the conversation, Shardon asked if V one regrets it, and V two replied yeah. Should I ask him done block you? Shardon responded please, and V two said yeah, he does. Shardon then went on to apologize for going to their game. And I also said, quote, I didn't know, he didn't want me to. I feel so bad that he regrets getting his first blow job unquote this chick here. Shardan was arrested and taken into custody on February first of twenty twenty four. She opted to waive her legal rights and speak with police. Shardon said that she and her husband, along with her two children, went to the Cleveland Avenue Hotel in Roseville for a staycation the week of January thirteenth of twenty twenty four.

12:56 While in the pool area on Saturday night, she there were multiple boys hockey teams staying at the hotel. She made casual conversation with some of the boys who were around fifteen or sixteen years old while sitting in the hot tub. Shardon said the next night, January fourteenth, of twenty twenty four, she went back to the pool area to get away from her husband because they were not getting along. She went into the sauna where there were several boys. The boys asked her for her quote socials, and they exchanged information. The boys also took a photo with her. Shardon said she enjoyed the attention. Shardan left the sauna and went back to the pool, where she continued to engage with various boys and exchanged social media information.

13:46 She said that some of the younger boys invited her to their room, an invitation she accepted just to get away from her husband. Shardon said she was in a hotel room with three juvenile boys. She admitted to kissing a couple of the boys and claimed they asked her to take her clothes off, to which she initially said no. She also admitted lying in bed with one of the boys quote kissing, and I gave him oral sex and I think he like fingered me for a little bit and that was it unquote. Shardon further admitted to asking the boys if anyone had a condom, but claimed she wasn't going to go through with it. Shardon said, I think I just things were just starting to progress, and I think I thought about it for a minute and then I was just like, yeah, no, that's not And I think it was at that point it was evident that V one was kind of uncomfortable. Shardon also admitted to engaging in sexual contact with V. Two. And that was the statement of probable calls and actually very well written, better than most that I come across. Of course, the subject matter is a little bit disturbing, but very thorough in what written, which is what you look for out of these probable cause affidavits. Now, she gets charged with several counts, including third degree penetration of a victim fourteen to fifteen and fourth degree sexual conduct with a victim

15:21 fourteen to fifteen, and she's placed in jail. She eventually bails out five days later. Now, something strange to me anyway, occurs on April fourteenth of twenty twenty four, some three months after this incident, when her husband and herself withdraw that divorce proceeding. Remember I told you they had filed for divorce prior to this quote staycation. Well, they withdraw it, and you would think it would be just the opposite, right, But note somewhere between this incident and three months later they totally reconcile, and so on May twenty second of twenty twenty four, she enters her plea at a preliminary hearing, and of course she pleads not guilty. Why because you know she wants to work out some sort of deal with prosecutors, And no matter how guilty you really are, it almost never happens that at a preliminary hearing someone pleads guilty. They're looking for a deal, right, And eventually that's exactly what happens. On October fourth of twenty twenty four, Allison changes her plea on the third degree charge to guilty, and as part of that deal, the fourth degree count gets totally dismissed, and the prosecutors also agree to cap any jail time she sentenced to to a cap of

16:54 eight months. So it's at that point that Shardon is set to be sentenced, and that occurs January tenth of twenty twenty five, just a couple of months ago. At her sentencing hearing, Judge Joy Barster gave Shardon credit for the five days that she spent in jail after her arrest and ordered her to serve two more weekends in jail and perform two hundred hours of community service. She also had to receive mental health treatment and have no unsupervised contact with juvenile boys period, and she must be registered as a what's none as predatory offender in Minnesota for ten years now. Ahead of the sentencing, the prosecution actually asked the court in a court filing for an eight month jail sentence, and they pointed out the defendants behavior was not a momentary lapse in judgment, that it was clearly planned. Why else would an adult exchange contact information with juveniles? She just met at a hotel and then go later to their room, and remember she left that room and came back. The filing went on to urge the court to treat the defendants behavior as being no less serious than if the defendant were a man and the victim were girls, if the genders were reversed.

18:22 There are few who will believe that leniency is appropriate. And that's a quote from the prosecutors, and I one hundred percent agree with them. The filing detailed some of the impact the assault had on her victims, quote, they have lost friends, They have had to endure whispers and harmful comments from others as if they were perpetrators. The prosecutors said both victims were initially suspended from their hockey team, though they were later reinstated after they explain what happened, and that victory was short lived, however, as team officials decided to cancel the rest of this. And I'm sure, look, they probably had chaperones on that trup and I don't know where the chaperons were, but I'm you know, and they were kind of at fault as well. They're not at thought for her conduct, but somebody dropped a ball in watching these kids, right, so they have it. I told you it was crazy, just a wild one there from the state of Minnesota. And I have another bind his surprise for you today and that's an interview I just did a couple of weeks ago with Emmy Award winning journalist Kieren Challa. Now Kieren is the host of Louisiana Unfiltered, a podcast that I produce recently both Kieran and My Little rock Star podcast or host of Unspeakable Kelly Jennings accompany me to meet the legend himself, Chris Hansen.

19:54 Of course, Chris Hansen is the former host of Dateline NBCs to Catch a produce. Now he does a show called Takedown with Chris Hans and it's on the True Balloon Network and I'm a consultant with the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office who within the past few months behind the scenes filming episodes as predators were being taken down right here in Livingston Parish Louisiana, and I joined Karen on her podcast to discuss just that. And here's that full podcast with Louisiana Unfiltered. If you enjoy it, go check her out, give her a follow. Just search Louisiana Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts. But before I play it, I want to truly think all of you who support me here on Patreon. We're doing some important work, y'all, and I could not do it without the funds generated through all of you supporting the show. I hope you enjoyed this bonus episode for supporters only my celebrities and until next time for exposed scandalous files of the elite.

21:06 I'm your host, Jim Chapman. Stay tuned. Kieren's coming up next much love. He's a name well known globally, garnering recognition from his former series called To Catch a Predator. We're talking about Chris Hansen, who has now started his own network, True Blue, and his new series is take Down with Chris Hansen.

21:47 Chris came to Livingston Parish and teamed up with the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Jason Art in February, over a three day period, eleven separate predators were trying to lure children online. One of them was in a police academy to become an officer, trying to get someone he thought was a fourteen year old girl. Another was a cafeteria worker in a school in bat Rouge. We sit down with Chris Hansen one on one and the sheriff on this takedown. I'm Kiaran Challa and this is Louisiana Unfiltered.

22:42 Welcome back everyone. This week we are joined by my good friend Jim Chapman. Jim, this episode, it's it's interesting because. You live and work in Livingston. Parish and now we've got a man who is globally known to catch predators coming to Livingston Parish. Yeah, Chris Hansen is a very well known figure in the true crime space. He has been around for over thirty years catching predators, which is a pretty amazing stint. And it was really unbelievable. I'm a surreal to meet him.

23:22 In person and watch him do what he does with Takedown, which is an amazing series by the. Way, And Jim, I mean he kind of gained recognition from his former series To Catch a Predator that started in two thousand and four, So that's really where he became Chris Hansen. It is definitely where he became a household name for sure. And back then that was a show that almost a lot of people watched. Yeah, and it was one of those that if you saw Chris Hansen, day just got really really, really really bad.

24:03 Yeah. And there were some points during this team up, if you will, with the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office where the predators actually recognized Chris Hansen when he walked out. He has that famous moniker have a seat when he walked out and said that to them, they knew right off, I'm in trouble. Yep, yep. So let's get straight to it. So what we did is a three day period, Chris Hansen and his entire team came down and teamed up with the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Jason Art. However, all eleven of these people, Jim were not from Livingston parish correct.

24:44 As a matter of fact, the majority of them were from outside the parish, and of course contacting what they thought was a fourteen year old girl. In most cases, that was a decoy that was used to lure these men in this case into what you would call, I don't know if you call it a safe house or how you would term it, but a house that was set up via the livings to pair sheriff's office to lower these guys in and catch them in the act. And that's said. And the sad thing. Is that sad and scary. Sad and scary because there are so many social networks out there, social media's out there, websites out there that a lot of parents don't even know about back in the day. And that's what my interview with Chris Hansen talked about. That there was my Space now it's there is no MySpace now, but there are probably fifty others out there that are being used to men talking to kids.

25:48 But then you have. Gaming, yeah, that and that is a really big problem. Yes, that you would never think that your child is playing a game on a computer on TV or whatnot, and in reality they're actually talking to someone. So that was the entire purpose of why they did what they did, but instead of the fourteen year old girl, it was deputies, or it was Chris Hansen. And in fact, why don't we do this. Let's go ahead and play the interview with Chris Hansen first and then let's talk about it. What brings you to Livingston Parish. Well, we came in this morning for the Sheriff's prayer breakfast and to talk about the state operation that we did a month ago where along with the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office, we went undercover and eleven men were arrested in the sting who were attempting to sexually exploit a child.

26:45 And there were men from all walks of life, some involved in the school districts and some involved in One fellow was actually in the police academy in New Orleans for a time. People from various businesses all had gone online, had a conversation, an illicit conversation with a law enforcement decoy posing as a child, and came over to a location to try to exploit that child, and instead they met the Sheriff's office and me and my crew through a combination of reporting on some different stories that had some occurrences in Livingston Parish and through some connections through law enforcement, I had heard that a sheriff artists team had conducted one of these investigations, and, as I frequently do with law enforcement agencies around the country, I reach out and try to embed and tried to tell the stories of different law enforcement agencies around the country who do these investigations and take part in the investigations. And the hope is by exposing these people, by holding them accountable, by trying to get inside their minds and understand how the mind of a predator works, we can better understand how to protect ourselves from predators of all types. But in this case, you know to sort of educate parents and children and create a dialogue and awareness that maybe doesn't exist the way it should.

28:04 So I guess, educate me, talk to me. If a parent is watching this right now, what are the biggest takeaways? Well, I think you have to have a conversation that's age appropriate the moment your child has access to the Internet. When I was growing up, the advice was don't talk to strangers. Great advice then, great advice today. The problem today is the guy who's a stranger on Wednesday is so adept at grooming your child. He's not a stranger by Friday. And kids oftentimes are adventurous, they're curious, and the predators know this, and they can play on the vulnerabilities that every child has, every teen has, And so parents need to say, look, if you're approached online by somebody who makes you uncomfortable, or if you're tricked, or if you're influenced in a bad way, you can come to me and we'll sort this out. We'll work together. We've got a big documentary underway on sextortion where criminals from half a world away are posing as young women enticing boys to send them elicit photos, and then they extort these children.

29:14 And some of these guys, as kids or great kids who just get tricked end have committing suicide. And it's a horrible, tragic occurrence. And if they had just talked to their parents, and these are good kids and good homes with good parents. But if the parents just new to somehow get involved in this at the right time and say, look, your world is not ending. It's gonna be okay. In two weeks. Nobody's even going to talk about this. Grandma's not going to know, just let it ride out, and parents can go to the National Center for Missing Exploited Children and they can get advice on how to scrub some of these pictures and these events off the web so that the children don't have to live with this exploitation.

29:55 I'm a reporter, so I understand there's a reason we do what we do. Why do you do this, Well, I do it because it's important. I do it because you know, I have the access to law enforcement after forty two years of reporting in this space, and I have a unique skill set. I suppose that allows. Me to have this access and to use it to you know, educate people. But at the end of the day, the reason why I do it is to continue to expose the people committing these crimes. When we started this particular franchise twenty years ago, I figured we'd do.

30:36 It two or three times. Who's going to show up twenty years later, twenty one years this month, these guys are still showing up. So what does that tell you? This isn't going away. When we started these investigations, we merely had decoys in chat rooms and Aol and Yahoo, maybe that thing you might remember called MySpace. Well, today, the number of social media platform upon which adults can approach children has exploded. I can't even keep up with it. My team can't even give up with it. Law enforcement can't keep up with it. So I think it's important work to do. We do reporting in a lot of different areas, but this is something that you know, I don't see us ending anytime soon. If young people see these shows, hopefully some of this sticks with them and make them smarter and safer online. And this is not just you know, predators are praying on children. There are predators out there praying on elderly citizens in financial scams.

31:37 You know, we work on those stories too, So the mindset of a predator is pretty much the same. When you're talking about people who try to exploit children and people who try to exploit the elderly, it's the same mindset. And so the more we can expose this, I think the safer we can make people. You've been doing this across the country. I guess rank Livingston Parish and the law last month. Well, I think it was a very successful investigation. You're talking about eleven men in three days. I think here in Livingston Paris there's a very sophisticated sheriff's office that has made this a priority. And not every law enforcement agency has the resources and the ability to do this.

32:19 And so we work with. Agencies like Livingston Parish, Genesee County in Michigan, Polk County in Florida, Blunt County in Alabama, Montgomery County in Ohio, all over the country. And what we found is even the agencies who have less manpower, less experience in this field, we find agencies with more experience coming in and helping them do this. Because if a law enforcement agency isn't doing this work, they're merely allowing agencies who are to push the problem into their community. Everybody needs to be doing this now. You can't do it every day, and depending on the size the agency, you may do it once a year, twice a year, four times a year.

33:03 But at least you're sending that message out. At least you're creating some deterrence, and at least there's a sense that if you try this in my parish, you're going to face justice swiftly. When will these make here? One has already dropped on my streaming crime network, True Blue, which is tru Blu watch True blue dot Com for details and the rest will be coming out over the next several weeks. And how many episodes do We have? Eleven episodes from Livingston Parish and they probably won't air all back to back. We'll probably mix them in with some of the other law enforcement agencies, but you know, over the next couple months they'll all be dropped. It was a real pleasure to work with Livingston Parish. Sriff Are and his team are superbly professional and you know, it's always energizing to me to you know, take on a new partner in this endeavor and to you know, work with men and women who are so passionate about this particular sort of investigation.

34:03 It was a pleasure to do this. So Jim, he kind of explained that the breakdown of this and to me, one of the ones that he discussed was a guy who had actually enrolled in a police academy. Yeah, in New Orleans, in New Orleans. But to me, and number one, that alone is worrisome. You've got somebody who wants to be a police officer. Obviously this arrest is going to not allow him to be. A police officer. But what the case that Chris explained was that he sent numerous ubers. So he's in New Orleans, he thinks he's talking to a fourteen year old here in Livingston Parish. Well, a fourteen year old can't drive right in order to get that girl to him, he needs to get her an uber maybe, Yeah, and he sent a few different ubers.

34:55 But that's scary. Yeah, the and it really shows she the depths that these predators will go through to get to these children. There's not a whole lot of limit there for them on what they'll do, very concerning trusted someone that and he wasn't an actual officer, so there was something that occurred somewhere maybe they figured it out that you know, obviously this guy has issues if he's doing things like this. But in one case, it wasn't East Baton Rouge Parish school worker, a cafeteria worker as a matter of fact, that showed up at the house to meet a fourteen year old girl. And this is someone that interacts with fourteen year old girls every day. How scary is that?

35:48 And the sad thing is that we're supposed to say allegedly, yeah, because you're innocent until proven guilty, But the fact that you allegedly showed up at a house to meet who you thought was a fourteen year old girl. On camera on camera or did deny yep? Yep? And that is really another aspect of what they're doing with takedown is not only are you getting this problem in really putting a microscope on it, but you're also providing evidence. Think about it, someone shows up at a house, yet Chris instance is down with him, and in a lot of cases, as a matter of fact, the majority of the ones that I've seen, these people admit that's what they were trying to do. So now you have it on video that this person saying, yep, I knew she was fourteen, and you have a full text conversation which he reads that is absolutely disgusting where they are flirting with these fourteen year olds getting very vulgar. Some of this stuff is very vulgar, very descriptive. But I think the point that they were trying to make here, especially focusing on what these people do for a living, cafeteria work. They had a sonic worker, they had the guy that had apparently applied to be a police officer in New Orleans that went through the training. They focus on those because they're trying to alleviate the perception that

37:22 it's a certain individual that does this. It's not a certain individual. It could be your next door neighbor. That's very true. I mean, think about it. Your child goes to a school, you think that's a safe place, and then they're going to eat, even if they take their own lunch, you still have to go to cafeteria yea and eat. Meanwhile, least do you know that your child is actually being scoped out? Absolutely? And obviously the vast majority of these workers of these school great people that would that would never enter their mind. And schools do take a lot of precautions in order to kind of weed out people that they might feel would be a risk in that respect. But eleven people over three days, you could not.

38:10 That's a lot. It's a lot. To me. The biggest takeaway from my interviews with both the sheriff and Chris was that for the parents out there that would the way technology has advanced and Jim, you're a dead yeah, and as a parent, did you know all the things that you need to be looking out for? I was aware that of the possibility of these things, But let me tell you, I had a similar situation in my household. With that, you know, you really have to pay attention. And I'm luck. I'm definitely more of a strict parent than probably most. I mean, I was the guy that you know, sleepovers didn't happen a whole lot with my kids.

38:55 Uh. And it wasn't that I didn't trust the other parents. I just it was just that's the way we operated our household. That being said, there was a time where we found some phone numbers on a cell bill we did not recognize from another state, and a guy was pretending to be a kid and talking texting with my daughter. Oh she was fourteen years old. Yeah, that didn't go over too good for him. So it happens, and it happens no matter we did. But we could have caught it too late. And yes, we were perceptive parents that went over that phone bill. And the second we saw something we didn't recognize, it was it was grilling. My daughter assumed she was talking to a kid. You know, this is just a kid that I met while playing these games on an app of some sort, and just an innocent app, a kid's app. It was not a kid.

39:59 And so those things can occur even to parents. That take what they feel like are the most precautions they can possibly take. Short of taking that cell phone away, it can happen. In times have changed so much that I know, I'm only twenty one, but when I was in high school, we didn't have cell phones. I mean they were coming in towards the latter part. Not everyone had it. Now every child has a phone, and you don't wait till you're in high school to get a phone. You have a phone probably in what sixth seventh grade in case your parent needs to get in touch with you on I'm finished Wood's practice at I don't know baseball. It is normal parts of society.

40:40 Well, but having this phone in your hands is also a bad thing because now you're texting anybody and everybody. And yes, Jim, there are people out there who say, well, the kids have changed. Also, they're a kid, right, you're an adult. It is your responsibility to know right from wrong. Hundred percent and educate your kids. Don't be scared to sit them down and say, hey, look, they got bad people in this world that have the worst of intentions with you, and this is what you need to watch out for. This is what is not acceptable as far as communication is concerned, I think education is kind of where it starts. Now, we've all been kids, we've all been young, and that's just mom and dad being ever protective.

41:27 In most kids, that's what's going to cross their mind. But at least they're cognizant that there's a possibility of that. These predators are not stupid. In a lot of cases, they make stupid decisions, but a lot of them are not dumb people. They figure out ways. They figure out very innovative ways to communicate with kids. Words with Friends when it came out, was huge for communications between these predators and kids. They play scrabble with them. It's Words with Friends, right, and there's a little message button on there, and that's how they would communicate. And these were people from all over the world that nobody was familiar with. They just you hit a button and it sets you up to play someone. And that's how the start of that began. Now, the roadblocks of the world and all these sorts of games, every one of them has a message function where you can communicate with people you don't know.

42:24 You don't know how old they are. They might be telling you they're a fourteen year old guy or a thirteen year old. No, you don't. And when you're a fourteen year old girl, you don't even think an adult would think that way. And if I am that adult talking to a fourteen year old, all I got to do is google a fourteen year old picture yep, and send that and say, look, this is who I am. How does that person know who this fourteen year old is? You know if I just went to a park around town and took a picture of a fourteen year old or from anywhere grabbed a picture, Yeah. But eat Jim. The biggest and most important part of this interview was what do parents need to take away? And fine, let's take a listen to my interview, which Sheriff Jason Ord because that was one of the most important things I asked of him. Okay, Sheriff, how did all this come about?

43:17 Well, it actually started whenever we ventured off into partnering up with our Attorney General Liz Merle. We had some of her crew with the Attack Task Force came and visited me about coming on to their program. And it kind of helps to have a filled detectives that are familiar with it. And we had actually had one approach me and one of my captains, and we joined the task force and started getting training and learning a lot about how this networking, if you want to call it, that is working, and these predators that are out there seeking our children, and we just kind of started jumping off into it. And that was about a year and a half ago. I had actually one investigator and today I have three.

44:02 That's how face it grew. It's very important to me, and I know it's very important in our community. And again, you don't really even as a parent, you don't really know what's out there until you kind. Of get involved in it a little bit more. And so we have a lot of other ways that we are, you know, resting people, and a lot of that is victim based, but this is a more proactive. This is us undercover going in posing as fourteen eleven year olds or whatever it may be, and seeking these predators who are seeking their prey and unfortunately for them, they coming across us and we're able to stop that before they actually get a victim.

44:42 So I would much rather us be the victims than. A twelve year old little girl or a fourteen year old old boy. Now this is not just child or is it even child pornography or is this more so praying on kids online? This is praying on kids online online. This is gaming, snapchat, any social media platform has a chatting capability, you're going to have predators on there. And a lot of times us as parents don't realize that we are not educating ourselves enough. We even started. A actual rooming curriculum to go and teach these parents through the school system in partner, we're our school system here in Livington to educate them. And look, I've been in law enforcement here in thirty two years and I have learned so much. If you think you know everything and you don't, there's so much out there that is opening to this and you can't. And every day's a different day, you know. So it was great to move forward on this, to watch this division grow so fast, to watch the investigators have the passion they have to go in and seek this out. This is a very special investigator to have to be able to do this type of stuff.

45:56 This is a lot. But to watch them work and to watch. Them do the things that they're doing by seeking these predators online is amazing in itself. How big of a problem is it in Livingston parish. So we arrested in this one sting operation. We'll make sure everybody's careerent on this. We did arrest eleven people, okay, eleven individuals arrested. Only two of those were from leavings in Paris. We're online. This is not to our local leavings in Paris chatting group. This is nationwide. I know we have personally work cases all the way in Utah where people somebody in Utah was seeking a individual. Here in our Paris we're protecting livings and parish children. And we have a lot of other agencies through the AG's office that.

46:41 Are on line with this. They work with us hand in hand in their areas as well. Chris said it earlier, it's a it's a networking thing. A lot of agencies are doing this, no matter how big or how small, but it's something we all need to do. So the way I. Look at it is, if you come from me, it's back rouge over to Livingston. After one of my children, you're going to go to jail. I don't care where are you're from. Stay away from us. And I'm hoping that everybody gets on board because my mission is to get them out of Livingston Parish. I don't want them to come back any here seeking any child. And you know, does that make it bad for surrounding parishes. Maybe so, until they get on board with us and they do the same thing. And that's what we're hoping for. And it's again, it's a very scary world online, very scary.

47:29 So so say someone is arrested out in Utah or something along those lines, that's not at Livingston Parish. They're still coming to Livingston Parish to be booked here. Which is why it helps to be associated with the Attorney General's Office because it's a task for us. Look at this one case that y'all talked about earlier, the master from New Orleans sent four Uber drivers to try to get this young girl, four to get her from Livingston to New Orleans. Do you really think that we'd have seen that little girl again? No, absolutely not. I can tell you one thing. He better not mess with another little girl from leaves in Paris. And that's the message that I'm trying to send. So this may be more of a district attorney question, but you guys have done your job. We see it over and over and over. Bond is set they're released, they're back out there.

48:18 That's right. And we have actually partnered with our Scott Peerlew's who is my district attorney. We had an actual conversation just the other day. He is actually going to assign an Ada to stickularly work in these cases. It's going to help us to have better prosecution. And that's what I hope is any message to parents, big message to parents, know what your child is doing, open up a good line of communication. With your child, and always expect the worst. You have to. And there's so many times in our livelihood, and you know this, we're busy, we have things going on, and we expect our kids to be doing great. We expect our kids to know that that's a stranger, don't.

48:58 Talk to them. But it's just not like that anymore. We open up a whole new world with social media platforms and this gaming and all the stuff that they're doing in chat rooms and that they may be thinking they're talking to another fourteen year old boy, which is actually a thirty nine year old person who is a predator trying to groom them to get them to a point where he can extort them. And that goes on every single day, eleven people car Eleven people were arrested in three days. That is scary, and parents, it's time for us to open our eyes, put our phones down, and pay attention to what your child is doing. Because we just had all I think it were several cases we work, but I know that was one stat that we had was over forty five victims that we was able to identify that was unknown law enforcement.

49:49 Are their parents? Forty five victims? That's big and that's super scary to know that that many and some of those were raped and their parents never knew. If there is a victim out there, if there is a parent who feels or suspects that their child may be a victim, what do they need to do? They need to contact us. We have resources that we can help them. And again we want to make sure that I mean, that's just so much on a child, it really is. But we want to reach out to the share ourselves. Call your local authority, call the AG's office. They have a great program as well, and do what you can as a parent and get up in your kid's business. That's what you need to be doing every day and expect the worst that online predators are real.

50:32 So some very important takeaways for parents, and we can't stress it enough. I mean, you just gave a prime example that a parent, it's what's the phrase we say that you should always have plenty of tools in your toolbox, even if you don't need them. This is how I kind of associate this with that. As a parent, you need to know this is out there and. You need to be vigilant, as the sheriff said in that interview, as parents, you have to have those conversations being nosy with your kids. You know, there's a lot of technology out there now, parental controls, things like that. Take advantage of those, use them, learn about them. I know technology is vast now and a lot of especially maybe the forty to fifty year old crowd isn't as caught up with that technology as the twenty to forty crowd.

51:27 But learn it because there are a lot of things you'll probably realize as far as the access to your children that you didn't realize prior to educating yourself on these communications they're having. And Jim, I'll even go as far as to say it couldn't mean the difference between life and death. Absolutely, the sheriff kind of leaned to that about this interview with the guy who was in the police academy that he kept on sending ubers, And in fact, this came out out of both interviews that one of the uber drivers, because think about it, the Uber driver's showing up and it's police at the house, so he's probably saying, well, wait, I have nothing to do with this. I thought, I'm just coming to pick up somebody. So the uber driver wanted to cooperate, so he actually called the the I don't know the guy's name, but the dude who was in the yes, the predator, and so he calls him and says, hey, this is a young girl. She's only fourteen.

52:29 I don't think I should be bringing this person. So he basically canceled that Uber and ordered another one. So now you can't sit here and say, oh, I didn't know she was fourteen. And I believe he said that in the show, and obviously when these shows make you you'll see this. But he tried to claim, well, I didn't know she was fourteen, And Chris Hansen came back with you had an Uber driver call you and say she was young girl, So you can't come back and say you didn't know, you knew. You just kept on and on and on and kept trying, and Sheriff Ar basically said that had this girl, had there actually been a fourteen year old, and had she been transported to New Orleans, what's the likelihood of that girl coming back?

53:09 Yeah, and he said it zero, probably zero. It was two or three of these guys that were undocumented, undocumented, so if they disappear with a child, or fourteen year old for that matter, there's no trace in those guys. This happened, yeah, right here in Livingston Parish in Louisiana. And if it's happening in Livingston Parish, it's happening in all of our areas, it's happening next door to you. It's again, this is not a scare tactic. We're not trying to scare parents out there. We're really hoping that. It's not just a peducate parent. This is what we're doing.

53:51 But Jim, it's not just a parent. It takes a village to raise one child. So if you've got kids coming over to your house and something seems off, maybe do the right thing and tell that mom, or tell that dad, or tell somebody. Yeah, and the other thing, I'll stress, and I mean again, as a reporter, I have covered some extremely heinous crimes. Watch where your kids are going As far as staying over, I kind of like you said, you were strict in that sense. I remember growing up, my mom and dad always made it a point that whoever you want to spend the night with, they can come to our house. Yeah. They didn't want me going to that, And yeah, the child in me did not understand that. The child in me was like, why my parents.

54:34 Are night They're not cool? You do. But now I look. Back, Jim, and it's like, thank god, thank god my mom and dad actually did that, because yeah, I would trust my parents with my life, but if something's happening, it would happen in my own home. Yeah, and that was then. Imagine now with the technology what it is now, the ability the ability not only to communicate with kids, but also to see their location. When these kids are on Snapchat and they're talking to someone and they don't know who they are, they can see exactly where they're at on a map. Makes sense if those communication services.

55:15 Are on good tip, good tip, you. Can there are apps out there like three sixty home three sixty or whatever it is where parents can you know, you have to be linked on that account in order to share locations. Certainly I would recommend that. But you don't want your child to be playing a game and somebody see their location. That's scary. That is scary, and it's almost on every game you play you can share that. So some of these predators Jim were actually from tangible Hope Parish, somewhere from across state lines. Yeah, but again that's how easy it is, because if you have one of them in your hands or a computer, state lines means nothing, means nothing, not only state lines, even globally.

56:10 You can be talking to somebody in Europe. Yeah, and they fly in with hopes of trying to meet you. Yeah. I've seen an episode that Chris Hansen did on Takedown where a guy came from two hundred and fifty miles away to meet with a kid and had bondage equipment in his vehicle. Yeah, they're sick when you when you operate like that and you have those kinds of thoughts, there's not a whole lot of limits to what you'll do to get to a child. It's scary, it is, and at the end of the day.

56:52 You called it the right word, sick. It's sick. And now so let's let's go further. Jim Sheriff's make the arrest. Chris Hansen has it all on video and in fact, he walked away with eleven episodes recorded on True Blue. Those are all going to periodically be coming out. Yes, they're not going to be eleven episodes straight. They're going to mesh them in with probably other cities that they go to. But over time you will see eleven episodes, so you can watch those on True Blue. But those eleven were recorded with the help of the Sheriff's office here in Livingston Parish. Yeah, they were, and I you know, shout out to lbso share Jason hard and his team. They really if you watch these episodes, the first two are actually playing right now on True Blue. If you watch these episodes, you can see how professionally this was done. There were a couple of scenarios where these guys ran and they were caught and they were called quick, very quick, very they didn't get very far and look out of them you had flip flops flying and everything, and so it was something it's actually entertaining to watch it's a very well put together production and uh, but very proud of Livingston Parish for getting on the forefront of that, Chris Hansen hooking up with Livingston Parish Sheriff's office and taking

58:25 eleven of these guys off the street. So let's move further though. You have the Sheriff's office who makes the arrests, you have Chris Hansen who's pretty much catching it all happening. But after that the case needs to be prosecuted. Right, So this is where Scott Parreliu, who's the District Attorney for Livingston Parish. He actually he and Sheriff Ard had a big press conference last year, I believe, and granted that one was about drugs, that they're not going to tolerate drugs in Livingston Parish and if they come to the parish, be prepared. Right. This one is very similar to that same message that the prosecutors in the DA they stand ready to do their job. But it's kind of like what you said when you have a confession on video not audio, because audio you could still say that's not me. Yeah, it sounds like me, but it's not me. When you have a video pretty much saying I did it. I knew they were fourteen. This is what I wanted.

59:28 It's it's a prosecutor. It's yeah, it's you know, a lot of cases are plea bargained, and it's said, I cover a lot of true crime cases, and I see it. I see these cases where I'm like, why did they plea bargain this? They had all this evidence, But the fact of the matter is more evidence you have, the less these people have at a bargain. A plea bargain. Plea bargains were designed because prosecutors maybe lacked a little bit of maybe their whole case was circumstantial, which you can get a conviction on the circumstantial case. It's just very hard, but maybe they can get these guys hey, and you know, instead of life in prison, will give you forty years if you'll agree to do this. Because they're worried about convincing an entire jury of someone's guilt. In this case, you couldn't wrap this in a gift any better and hand it to the prosecutor and say here you go.

1:00:29 And I'll tell you what. I haven't seen all eleven of these episodes yet, but the ones I've seen, they meant to it. And I'll even add this. I mean we've spoken to hill Or Moore, who's the district attorney in East Bouton Ridge Parish. The truth is there's so many cases coming in. You have a limited number of prosecutors, so the backlog is so intense that you have to please some cases. Right well, when you go to one of these men and say, listen, I got this, this, and this against you, so I'll take you to trial, but more than likely you're going to lose, so we can go ahead and call it quits and you accept this plea deal right now, or we take you to try. Right exactly, and you know, don't forget that, uh Louisiana and specifically Livingston Parish, which is the first, if I'm not mistaken, the first parish to actually did this, but chic chemical castration now you know, hopefully that'll do some go was swaying some of these sick individuals from trying to access or youth.

1:01:30 And we even had that prosecutor come on and talk about why he chooses to use chemical castration. Yeah, I think it's to read of four times here in Livingston Parish alone. Brade Cassia that's who was yep. And he's got no shame in his game to use it over and. Over and over. But just define flows very tough part prosecutor, but his just strict attorney signs off on it as well. So the message is very clear in Livingston Parish. And you just heard the sheriff say that in his interview, that that's really the message he wanted out, that don't come picking on kids in Livingston Parish. I agree one hundred percent, and I could not be more proud of everybody involved in doing this. I think that it puts a national spotlight on what we're doing locally to curb this problem.

1:02:27 Yep. And it also hopefully our listeners. If you're a parent, or you've got a nephew or a niece or anybody a neighbor's kid you're just in love with, make sure you kind of equip yourself with some of this knowledge. Parents can catch it. Just make sure you go behind your kids and you know, nine times out of ten this won't happen personally to somebody, but you don't want to be that one out of ten that it does. And anything you can do as far as educating yourself will. Help absolutely well, Jim. As always, we appreciate you coming on and.

1:03:08 It's always fun having this discussion with us. And for those of you who don't already know this, Jim Chapman has many of his own podcasts, from Local Leaders to the latest one, which is just gone so well for you, is Exposed Exposed. Yeah that's a bun one. Yeah. So if you're a true crime fan, you'd love Exposed for sure. We talk about scandals and things of that nature. So go take a listen to those and for our listeners, as always, we appreciate you joining us. Don't forget to leave us your reviews, subscribe, tell your friends and family. And I'll say this again, Jim, I have people who come up and say we love your podcast, and you notice that I still get taken aback by that, Like it makes me realize, Okay, well, what we're doing is working.

1:03:59 So I appreciate y'all speedback, keep it coming, and as always, we appreciate you listening, and we will see you on the next episode of Louisiana Unfiltered.