All language subtitles for Predator.Hunters.S01E01.By.Any.Means.Necessary.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

The
following program documents

real law enforcement
investigations

of child sexual predators.

This deeply disturbing content

may be triggering
for some viewers.

Please watch with care.

Next, a man turns up

to meet two underage boys
for sex.

He doesn't know he's walking
right into a sting.

Then, Detective Tony Godwin
tracks a predator

with thousands
of illegal images on his phone.

I'd like
for you to please stand

over here in the kitchen.

We're going to search
the house real quick.

And the team
takes down a man

trying to have sex
with a 13-year-old girl.

On the ground!

A team
of police professionals

in North Dallas has one goal--

Get out of the car!

-take down online
predators

before they harm a real child.

Child predators are everywhere.

Online predators
pose the biggest danger

to America's children today.

Kids are being targeted
at an alarming rate.

This team
is opening its case files

for the first time to show you
how it tracks them down--

All right,
he's coming this way.

- and brings them to
justice by any means necessary.

Put your hands on the car.

This is
Detective Tony Godwin,

and his team is
the Predator Hunters.

I grew up
in a military family.

We moved around a lot.

At 17, I joined the Army.

By 23, I'd left the military

and started tracking down
criminals on the street.

In 2005, I made detective.
And ever since,

I've worked internet crimes
against children.

Now that I've got
kids of my own,

this work, it means everything.
It's personal.

There's nothing I'd rather be
doing than saving kids' lives.

I'm surrounded by
a team of people

who are just
as dedicated as I am.

So far, we've put away
close to 200 predators.

Most of them are serving
ten years or more.

That's over 2,000 years
of prison time,

and we're not done yet.

] I call this
my wall of shame.

I put every one
of these offenders behind bars.

No two of these guys
are the same.

Every one of them
has a story to tell.

Take this guy, for example,
James Wade King.

This is the classic guy.

It really took a team effort
to get this guy into custody.

But at the end of the day,
it worked.

February 13, 2020.

Detective Tony Godwin waits
in a parking lot for Wade King.

The predator believes

he's meeting a
13-year-old girl for sex.

He's convinced she's into him

after talking to her
on the phone.

In reality, the girl
is an undercover police officer,

and Wade King
is walking into a trap.

The cases I work,
there's two kinds,

proactive and reactive.

In a proactive capacity,
I'm putting myself online

as a child in the hopes that
a predator's gonna reach out

to me and talk to me.

Social media platforms,

gaming applications and sites,
chat rooms,

anywhere that kids are,
is where I put myself.

Today,
Tony is investigating

a social media
platform called AntiLand.

One of the things
that they market is the fact

that you're anonymous
while you're on here.

Age, terms of service,
says you have to be 18,

but there's kids all over it.

I set up the vanity name
as Dinasaurus13TX,

which lets everybody
in the rooms know

that my name's Dina,
I'm 13, and I'm from Texas.

And then just put myself
out there and start to fish.

Within seconds,
I'm just slammed with messages.

One user in particular,
his name was Kingfish,

he was very interested.

Kingfish opens up with,

"How old are you?
You ever talk to older guys?"

That is a huge red flag.

And I tell him,
"I'm almost 14, what about you"

Kingfish tells me,
"Probably too old. I'm 45."

A bunch of things
run through my head.

Like one,
this guy's too comfortable

talking to a
13-year-old kid about this.

I can't
put myself out there

and lead someone into
a sexual situation.

Anything that got initiated
by me would wipe my case.

Developing the ability to speak
like a kid definitely took time.

I have honed that to
a pretty decent skillset.

I misspell things, I say words

that to adults
mean absolutely nothing,

and that needs to be
as realistic as possible.

I want to see what direction
he's going to take this.

And I say, "LOL, why wouldn't
I want to talk to you, silly?

You seem really sweet."

Kingfish suggests
we move over to SMS.

I give him my cell phone number,

and he immediately
text messages.

I introduce myself,

and he replied
his name was Wade.

Tony hands
Wade's name and number

to his co-worker, Tavie Guthrie.

She is a specialist
in unmasking predators.

I'm a
digital investigative analyst.

I've been doing this with Tony
for about two years now.

I am a little bit
of a cyber sleuth.

I started out as a 911 operator.

I really credit that to
preparing me for what I do now.

When I get a phone number,
the first thing I do

is just check our local database

to see if we have
any records with them.

If they're in our system,
then it makes it really easy,

because we've already
verified an ID for them.

So our guy is
James Wade King.

And this guy is a real winner.
He's got prior charges.

He's in the Dallas area.

We've got false report,
terroristic threat.

Interestingly,
no prior sex offenses,

but I'm not sure if that's just
because he hasn't been caught.

My communications with
Wade, they keep going.

Wade begins to ramp things up.

He wants to normalize
sexual behavior,

bring it down where
a child would feel OK

to have
a conversation like that.

And then he sends me a text.

He's asking this child about
having sex with a grown man.

It's freaking disgusting.

So I want to feed
into his little fantasy.

There's not one doubt in my mind

this guy is
an absolute predator.

He's got to be a real threat
to a real child,

and I need to get him.

But I need him to make a mistake
for me to do that.

Wade decides to send me
a photo of himself.

It's a mirror selfie.
The way he's posed himself

in this photo to look like
a teenage kid,

even though he's a creepy old
man, very sexually suggestive.

And then Wade does what most
of these predatory types do.

He asks her to produce
nude imagery or videos.

Obviously, I can't do that.

I don't look much like
a 13-year-old girl.

But fortunately, I do
have access to people who do.

I first
met Tony about eight years ago.

He came up to me and just said,
"You look pretty young."

I must have looked
so creeped out,

like, "Who is this man?"

My coworker was with me,
and she kind of gave me

a little bit of backstory
on him.

And we got to talking,
and he asked me

if he could maybe
use my photos or my voice

to make a profile
to talk to predators.

To know that Wade
is looking at these photos,

it's just disturbing.

But providing my photos to Tony
means that these people

are looking at a picture of me
rather than a picture

of a real child that
would be really traumatized.

Tony sends Wade
a photo of Audrey

taken when she was a young teen.

I kind of make fun of
my hair looking kind of crazy.

I immediately say, "Yeah, I'm
sure you don't really like this.

And that's OK.
You can just tell me."

The fact is, I'm just trying
to make him buy into the fact

that I'm a 13-year-old kid
with some low self-esteem.

And then he replies immediately.

"You don't think bad of me,
do you?"

Like, "Yes, I do
think bad of you.

"You're a 45-year-old
creepy dude

chatting with
a 13-year-old girl."

That's a problem.

All I got to do now
is just reel him in,

because he's wrapped up
in this fantasy.

In order for me to
get my hands on him,

I have to put Wade behind
the keyboard of the device

with 100% certainty

that he is the person that
I've been communicating with.

I get the break
I need through Wade.

The fact that he
suggested to meet in person,

he's just crossed the line

as far as criminality,
and his intent.

And so now that puts together
a better case for me.

So I tell him, "Hey,
I'm available February 13th."

I'm ready for that meet
to take him down and arrest him.

Tony's
undercover profile, Dina,

arranges to meet Wade
at an apartment complex.

As we're set up
for the takedown,

Wade throws a curveball.

Wade wants to have
a conversation on the phone.

Tony calls me, and he
asks me if I can come help him,

use my voice
to convince this man

that he has actually been
talking to a real child.

Audrey prepares to
call child predator Wade King.

She must make him believe
that she's 13 years old.

I'm feeling like the weight
is on my shoulders

if he doesn't believe
what I'm saying.

The weight of this
is not on you at all.

This is just a necessary evil.

Audrey was
full of nerves.

I told her, "You're going
to do fine.

Just keep it short.
Keep it sweet."

It always surprises me that

as soon as the men
hear my voice,

they immediately have
this sigh of relief.

You can hear that their
confidence builds,

and that they are
much less nervous

to actually come
and meet up with me.

Audrey nails it
with the phone call.

You did a fantastic job.

Like, I couldn't have asked
for anything better,

because all he thinks about
is the prize.

And the fact that he thinks he's
about to score with a real kid,

you can just hear
how assured he is.

So the meeting is set
for the next day.

The location that I use

is one that I have used many,
many times over the years.

It's a controlled environment
for us,

because it's a one way in,
one way out.

It's a huge operation,
a lot of moving parts,

a lot of people,
a lot of assignments.

People have to be
at the top of their game

in order for it to happen
and go down perfectly,

and so that Wade
doesn't know it's a trap.

7:35 a.m.,
I send King a message.

I radio all that
information to my team,

and now we're good to go.

Takedown days are full of
angst, concern, worry.

I'm very demanding, because
I don't want it to go wrong.

One of Tony's team
spots Wade's black car.

Standby.

He's walked
right into the trap.

We got him.

My involvement with the case
isn't even close to being done,

because now I have
to go interrogate him.

It's my favorite part
of the job.

He's got an open posture
through a good portion of it,

but you can just tell, like,
he's got stress all over him.

Like, he is freaking out inside,
as he should be freaking out.

He does, like, this
Oscar Award-winning performance.

He puts his hand
on his face. Complete garbage.

He's doing that for the camera,
and for no other reason.

Like, I want him
to admit what he did.

I want to put some closure
to this. And so that's my goal.

I can't talk to him any further,
but that's fine.

I know that I've got
enough evidence against this guy

to put him away
for a very long time.

There's one small piece
of good news with this.

King has been sentenced.
He's behind bars.

There's one less predator
out there to prey on kids.

Me and my team, we just
move on and get to the next on.

Because there's plenty more
where that came from.

April 7, 2022.

A tip-off leads Tony
to a new target.

He turns out to be a collector

of some of the worst
child sexual abuse material

Tony's ever seen.

Have you ever
looked at child pornography?

To bring him to justice,

Tony must hit two locations
at the same time.

We have a search
warrant for your residence.

I need to see this,
and I need to see that.

A single misstep
could give the predator

the chance to destroy the
evidence of his horrific crime.

Jared Capizzi.

This guy had one of the largest
and sickest collections

of child pornography
that I've ever seen.

This case focuses on the methods
used by these predators

when they're sharing
child sex abuse material,

and how we detect them doing it.

This case begins
on March 28th of 2022,

when I receive
a series of cyber tips.

We call this a reactive case.

Cyber tips are the benchmark
for alerting law enforcement

that there is online activities

either involving
some sort of exploitation

involving a child,
or child sex abuse material,

which we call CSAM.
A member of the public

or one of the electronic service
providers reports CSAM

through the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children,

which we call NECMEC.

In this case,
the NECMEC cyber tip

relates to 31 files
that were flagged and uploaded

to a cloud storage system.

NECMEC already identified
the classification

as apparent child pornography.

When I download the files,
they are absolutely horrific,

involving very, very small
prepubescent children.

Anyone, in my opinion,

who downloads
this type of material

is an absolute threat
to children,

and is someone that
I'm going to put behind bars.

And in this case, because it's
provided in the NECMEC tip,

I know who this target is,
and his name is Jared Capizzi.

- An interview?
- Yes.

To build the case
against predator Jared Capizzi,

Tony brings in trusted fellow
detective Robert Golladay.

We're academy mates.

We've been the best of friends
for over 30 years.

He really does a great job on
the forensic side of the house.

The information search
on Jared Capizzi

brings up that Capizzi
is a habitual offender.

He has convictions for drug
possession, forgery, fraud.

He's also on parole. He's living
at his mother's house.

We didn't find
any previous convictions

for crimes against children.

One of the big concerns
we had with Capizzi is the fact

that he has a child of his own.
He has a son.

Anyone who's in a position
of trust or authority

who has access or availability

to a child pushes them
up higher on the chain.

I know Capizzi is our guy
that has uploaded the 31 files

from the NECMEC cyber tip.

The problem I have is this.

He has access
to a cloud account on a device,

which means he has
access to a cloud account

potentially on multiple devices.

If I don't get all
of those devices,

Capizzi could remotely wipe
that material from the devices

that are in our possession.

So it's vital that I get all
of the devices at the same time.

So the simplest way
for me to get

the most updated information
about Capizzi

is to reach out
to the parole office.

Parole officer tells me
that Capizzi is doing great.

He reports regularly.
He checks in.

He has a steady job with
a construction company.

He's living with his mom.

The parole officer also tells me

that he does not have
his son living with him,

that the child lives in another
location with the mother.

So luck is on my side.

Capizzi is scheduled
for a urinalysis test

to be in compliance
with his bond conditions,

or his parole conditions
on drug use.

And so I'm like, "Great."

"I know where he'll be.
I know when he will be there."

And now all I do is
basically hatch the plan

on how I'm going to get him and
what I'm going to do with him.

I need to get all of the devices
from the mom's address,

so this is going to be
a really unusual takedown.

I have to have teams at
two different locations

in two different parts of
the city at the exact same time.

3:15 p.m.,
The operation begins.

Tony waits to intercept Capizzi
at the probation office.

At the same time,

Detective Golladay
prepares to search his home.

Timing is critical.

What's really vital for me
as far as coordinating goes

is that I have my hands on
Capizzi before the home is hit.

But Capizzi is late.
By 3:30, there's no sign of him.

3:40,
my concern is growing.

If I don't get
all of those devices,

Capizzi,
or really somebody else,

could remotely wipe
that material,

causing a big problem for me.

At 3:45,
the parole officer updates Tony

that Capizzi has arrived.

- How are you, man?
- Good, how are you?

- Have a seat real quick.
- Gotcha.

When Capizzi
enters the room,

we confiscate two phones
in his possession.

I need to see this.
And I need to see that.

And I'll explain to you
what's going on.

So the two phones
are immediately handed off

to another detective
who's there with me.

His responsibility is to
get them to be processed.

We're gonna have a chat
about something,

and I'll kind of explain
to you what's going on.

He has absolutely
no idea why we are there.

While
Tony grills Capizzi,

Detective Golladay executes the
warrant to search his residence.

Capizzi's mother meets
the officers outside.

She is unaware of what
her son has concealed.

My name's
Robert Golladay.

We have a search warrant
for your residence.

And so that's what
we're here to do,

is we're searching
for computers,

cell phones,
and stuff of that nature.

So what we're going to do

is we're going to
walk in the house.

I'd like for you to please stand
over here in the kitchen.

We're going to search
the house real quick.

At the parole office,
my interview and interrogation

of Capizzi has started.

Here's my card.

I work internet crimes
against children.

I advise him
of his legal rights.

He waives his rights.

He signs a document,
and our conversation begins.

Jared, so listen.
When I tell you

that I work internet crimes
against children--

-does that
give you any reason

why I would be contacting you?

In the beginning,
he's providing information.

He's seemingly pretty chill.

Do you look at
pornography on your phone?

Adult pornography?

Have you ever looked
at child pornography?

OK.

And where would you be
when you would come across it?

Capizzi
makes an admission

that he downloaded
this random link,

which contained a large amount
of child sex abuse material.

He frames it as though
it was an inadvertent download.

I know from my training,
those are directed links,

typically coming at a request

of someone who's requesting this
particular type of material.

There's no point
in him lying to us anymore.

Just give it up.
We already know.

Detective Tony Godwin
grills Jared Capizzi

after a cyber tip revealed
he'd shared CSAM,

child sexual abuse material.

What I'm talking
about isn't a gray area.

I'm talking about when
you see it at a glimpse,

you know automatically this is
a very small, young kid.

The fact that it contained
far more imagery

than I even was aware of
was a very telling statement.

So you
deleted that stuff or what?

Tony confronts
Capizzi with the images

that the cyber tip
flagged as CSAM.

Do you remember
sending those pictures?

Some of them?

The ones
that looked familiar?

So you've sent those?
And who did you send those to?

The minute we go
into interrogation mode,

which is more pointed
to the actual crime

that I'm interested in,
his tune changes considerably.

So here's the deal.

I told you we have a warrant
to record anything electronic,

anything capable
of storing digital media.

That's not only for here,
you, and your person,

but it's for your home as well.

When we
go to the house,

the mom's not very happy
that we're there, obviously.

Just because the police
just barged into her house.

And we're trying to tell
her what her son has done,

and she doesn't believe us.

Holy [bleep].

You obviously saw
what the warrant is for.

- Yes!
- OK.

I cannot believe
any of this.

He's already
admitted to it,

and admitted to downloading it,
and sharing it.

We start searching all
the drawers, all the closets,

under the bed, on the bed,
everywhere we can look

that an electronic device
could be hidden.

And we found two phones,
three tablets,

two computers,
and two thumb drives.

Detective Golladay
uses digital forensic software

to scan the recovered devices.
The process takes 60 minutes.

If CSAM is on them,
the software will find it.

So the special software we use

when scanning these devices
has identified

over 2,000 items
of child sex abuse material,

and over eight and a half
thousand images.

Those images and videos
found on Capizzi's device

included the 31 files
that were uploaded

and sent to me through NECMEC
and the cyber tip.

At that point,
we take him into custody

and put him under arrest.

Out of
the 18-plus images I showed you,

or more than that,
they're on here.

Which means I got to
take you in, man.

- I'm not gonna resist.
- Just want to make sure.

No, I'm not doing anything.

It's like...

He throws out the blame game,
how his mom's gonna be alone,

his kid's going to
lose his father,

and those things
are going to happen,

but it's because of
his own actions

that he doesn't want
to take responsibility for.

That imagery is the worst day
of that child's life.

It's a visual depiction
of a child being exploited

and sexually abused
and molested.

It's a day in the life of
that child that never goes away.

He is a predator.
He is a monster.

He damaged more children

by sharing the material
that he got,

and he absolutely got
what he deserved.

July 27, 2017.

Tony and his partner,
Detective Brandon Poor,

are conducting surveillance
in a North Dallas parking lot.

They're monitoring a suspect
who believes he's meeting

two teenage boys for sex.

He's confident enough to stop
and buy condoms on the way.

His arrest is one of
the most dramatic takedowns

of Tony's career.

Put your hands up!

Down on the ground!

The predator in this
next case is the sickest dirtbag

I've ever had the misfortune
of dealing with.

William Potter.

This guy was prolific online,
and super cautious, too.

To catch him, my coworker and I

had to run
two undercover profiles

at the same time
to lure this guy out.

July 10th of 2017,

I got a phone call
from Brandon Poor,

one of my colleagues
on the task force.

And he began to
give me some details

about the target he's identified
that was in my particular area.

Brandon works undercover cases
for a neighboring agency.

I basically got him trained up,
pointed in the right direction,

and he hit the ground running,
and took off like a rocket.

I joined the Crimes Against
Children Unit in 2014.

I love the work.

It's the best spot in
the entire policing industry.

It's the place where you
get truly innocent victims

and you make an impact for life.

Detective
Brandon Poor briefs Tony

on a suspected predator
he's found online.

Brandon tells me that

he had responded to
a pretty crazy Craigslist ad.

OK, so this is
the ad I responded to.

"I'm looking for a son
that wants to play.

"I'm open to almost anything
that feels good,

"including touching,
body contact,

"cuddle, being [bleep],
et cetera.

18 to mid-twenties is a plus,
but open to all."

Some problematic stuff
in there, yeah? Boy.

Yeah, the 18 to twenties,
but open to all,

that was enough for me to know.

Yeah, he tries
to be a little ambiguous,

but it's pretty clear
what he's looking for.

I suspect he's had some success,

if he's so bold to put
all that in there, you know?

- And you replied to this ad?
- I did.

When I saw the ad on Craigslist,

I created a profile of a young
underage boy named Ethan,

and sent an email
in response to his ad.

He introduced himself
as Joe Richards.

I know from experience
and just doing this for so long

that Joe Richards
is probably not his name.

I told him I have a cousin.

He told me that I should
tell him I was 18,

putting in parentheses,
"hint, hint."

It was clear in
his communications

that he wanted to do things

that would be harmful
to children.

He is very dangerous.

Knowing that he's
in Tony's backyard,

I call Tony and tell
him we need to team up.

On July 2017, I create
a new undercover profile

of a 14-year-old boy named Adam,
and this is Ethan's cousin.

I email
Joe Richards as Ethan

and make an introduction
to my cousin.

This is really unique.

Two undercover boy profiles
with the same subject.

Joe Richards bites.

I'm trying to just be kind
of chill and coy and cool.

But seem appealing enough that
he'll want to continue to talk.

So now I want to show
that I am a vulnerable kid

who's confused
about my sexuality.

The particular message about
being discreet and secret,

it's a huge red flag.

I'm ready to see if this guy's
interested in a meet.

I do that by telling him, like,

"Oh, hey, I told you Ethan's
coming to stay next week."

He is very, very excited.

And he suggests that we meet
July 27th of 2017.

At this point,
he thinks he's hit the lottery.

He has scored so big
in his own mind,

he's going to have
a sexual encounter with two boys

at the same time?
This dude is over the moon.

What Joe asks me next
kind of shocks me a little bit.

He asked me to go shopping.

Who does he think he is
to get this kid

to go buy condoms
for his own sexual assault?

I tell him I'm afraid.
He tells me that's fine.

He will do it, but I have to
pay him back. What a cheap ass.

It just shows the real depravity
of this guy's brain.

We're trying to find
out Joe Richards' real identity.

We subpoenaed Craigslist,

we get back a treasure trove
of records,

including postings that
he's made for the last year,

all very similar to the one
that I responded to as Ethan.

The true identity of the person

who's made these posts
is William Potter.

Here's our guy,
William Potter.

We find out he was arrested by
Waco PD on March 31st of 2017.

And he was charged at that time

with online solicitation
of a minor.

Investigators in Waco
later dropped the charge,

and Potter is convicted of no
crime in relation to that case.

At the time of that arrest,

his computer and cell phone
had been seized.

We find out
that this guy's been handled

by three different agencies.

So we want to make sure
that we get our hands

on him as quickly as possible.

Tony is hunting

suspected child predator
William Potter.

There's an exchange
of messages between Potter and I

about where and how to meet,
and I suggest a local store

that's down the street
from my house.

The reason I picked
that particular store

is he is familiar with the area,

and it gives me and
my team tactical advantage.

We can sit up and watch
and have the capability

of doing a safe takedown.

I asked Joe, like,

"How am I gonna know if you're
there or not? What are you in?"

And he describes a 1991 Pontiac
Firebird with blue wheels.

Really specific,
really random car.

Going to be super easy to spot.

We don't have to wait long,

because he does not live far
from this location.

Potter sits in his car
for just a minute,

just assessing the situation.

And at one point,
he exits the vehicle,

and he begins to
walk into the store.

If he does go
to purchase the condoms,

it's magnificent evidence,
it will be used against him.

Potter
pays for the condoms.

He's about to exit the store
and be arrested.

As he exits the store,
we are watching him.

What happens next
is crazy to me.

Get on the ground!

What are you doing!?

Potter is
very unhappy about his arrest.

He is moaning and groaning,
making a big production.

I have zero sympathy
for him at this point.

Potter invokes
his Miranda rights,

which he's very entitled to do.

It was wildly disappointing
for me, for him to do that.

I almost take it
as a personal failure,

that I could not
convince this guy

to have a conversation with me.

So Potter is afforded an
opportunity to use the phone,

and does, and calls his wife.

To accept
this call, press one.

Call accepted.

I feel bad for his wife,

because her life just
absolutely fractured in half.

Her world just collapsed
with this news.

I feel for her,
because now she has no choice

but to live with the actions
of her stupid husband.

My takeaway
from the Potter case

is he's just a bad guy.

He wanted to meet minor boys
for sex no matter the cost.

And it was clear
that he wouldn't stop

until we had to stop him.

This case shows that predators
like William Potter,

they do exist.

And that is why
I do the job that I do.

My team and I, we have one
mission and one mission only:

keeping America's children safe.

To all the bad guys out there
committing these crimes,

you better sit up
and take notice.

The Predator Hunters
are coming for you.