MANTORVILLE, Minn. – A Sleepy Eye man was charged with fifth-degree assault for an aggressive confrontation with a man he thought was a sexual predatory at North Park in Dodge Center. The assault charge was filed against Gideon Turgeon after he posted a video on the YouTube media site of the confrontation. In the confrontation Turgeon and two fellow members of the self-styled Midwest Predator Catchers group lit into a savage verbal attack on Joseph Lee Carlson, accusing him of being the park to meet a 14-year-old boy for sex. The YouTube video, unpleasantly raw at many levels, was a key in the arrest of Carlson – as well as the assault misdemeanor charge against Turgeon. Turgeon and his Predator Catchers group – three men in all — claimed to have recorded exchanges with Carlson while they posed as a 14-year-old boy. Carlson took the bait and showed up at North Park in Dodge Center for the ruse rendezvous that was arranged by the Midwest Predator Catchers vigilantes. Turgeon had driven 100 miles from his Sleepy Eye home to Dodge Center for the confrontation.
Earlier: $250,000 bail in Dodge Center child porn case
Sheriff: Don’t do this
The Dodge County sheriff, Scott Rose, cautioned citizens against taking the a law into their own hands. Rose directed his comments at Midwest Predator Catchers, which tracked sex-messaging online and aggressively confronted a suspect. The Predator Catchers may have had good intentions but their actions were dangerous and could have resulted in injury or death, Rose said. In fact, there may have been a knife involved in the Predator Catchers confrontation. Rose said that some tactics to entrap alleged offenders can render law enforcement unable to formally charge them.