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When a Houston cop seeks access to a mom’s two kids, detectives go all in to stop one of their own.
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00:05The following program documents real law enforcement investigations of child sexual
00:09predators. This deeply disturbing content may be triggering for some viewers. Please watch with
00:14care. Next, the team hunts a predator in Houston. The twist is, he's one of their own. He's a
00:23pervert with a badge. Concern would be an understatement. My reputation is completely
00:29destroyed. Then, Detective Tony Godwin races to stop a predator who secretly records his victims. I'm
00:36like, this guy is sick. Never in one year should I imagine this would happen. I'm not going to front
00:43him. And later, Tony joins forces to stop a predator who just can't keep it in his pants.
00:50There he is in all his glory, pants and underwear down around his ankle. It's a very, very memorable
00:55arrest. I might have said I was going to do it, but I was never going to do it.
01:02A team of police professionals in North Dallas has one goal. Take down online predators before
01:09they harm a real child. Child predators are everywhere. Online predators pose the biggest
01:16danger to America's children. Kids are being targeted at an alarming rate. This team is opening its case
01:24files for the first time to show you how it tracks them down. All right, he's coming this way. And
01:32brings
01:32them to justice by any means necessary. This is Detective Tony Godwin and his team is the Predator
01:44Hunters. It's 2017. Detectives Tony Godwin and Brandon Poor are facing their toughest takedown yet.
01:56Both terrifying and shocking. But what I find out next is just mind blowing. This guy is a cop.
02:04We both know. Is it for me? You know, these cases come along that you're never going to forget. This
02:10guy
02:11here, Donald De Nert, this is one of them. This one hits so close to home because this guy was
02:17a cop.
02:18At the end of the day, we were able to take his knowledge of law enforcement and tactics and use
02:23it against him to get him into custody without him even knowing about it.
02:36This case revolves around my friend and colleague, Brandon Poor. He's a detective on the ICAC task force.
02:41I have known Brandon for a very long time, over 10 years. We collaborate on cases quite a bit. A
02:49lot of
02:49times I'm assisting him on his search warrants and his cases and he's doing the same for mine.
02:57Brandon is online doing an undercover proactive investigation into the internet relay chat,
03:02what we call IRC. IRC is one of the oldest chat platforms that exists. Looks very old school. It
03:12consists of a bunch of different channels and forums that's unmonitored. The culture of IRC is horrific.
03:21It's not for the faint of heart, I promise you. There are channels like dad and daughter sex,
03:26baby and toddler love, and things that are horrible. You will find predators who are sharing
03:32back and forth material and communications and talking about things that would literally make
03:37your stomach turn. So in this case, I created an undercover profile of a 31-year-old mom named Laura.
03:46I portray myself as a mom of two daughters, ages 5 and 11. The idea is that Brandon's going to
03:54use this
03:54profile who's got two daughters available and offer them up for sex. The sad reality is,
04:01it's based on real things that we know have happened. Real adults who have had their own
04:08children or access to children offered them up for sexual purposes. I'm hit with dozens of messages
04:16right away. But one user sticks out from the others because its title, Loves Young, gives me some sort of
04:24indication as to what this user might be looking for. He's asking me how many daughters I have.
04:34And he says, I bet they're both so cute and sexy. I love mothers and their young daughters.
04:41So out of the realm of anything a normal person would even think about. It feels a little more
04:48creepy to me. I have kids and it hits a little closer to home. So I'm playing naive.
04:55I'm basically telling him I haven't really talked about anything like this. And he's saying it would
05:01be something he would want to actually do. Over the next few weeks, the messages start becoming more
05:07graphic and more explicit. Both terrifying and shocking. Concern would be an understatement.
05:15My biggest fear that he's going to go meet a real kid or in this case, the parent that has
05:20access to
05:21kids. Brandon shows me some of the communications between he and this user Loves Young. I'm telling
05:30you, it's so disgusting. The deviant, horrible things he wants to do to a child. This guy is a
05:38problem. So we've got to do everything we can to figure out who he is, find him and put his
05:43ass in jail.
05:47Tony subpoenas the internet provider for information about Loves Young's identity.
05:51I eventually get the information back and they give me an address in the Houston area.
05:55And it comes back to a guy named Donald Denerd. I do a little bit of digging and I find
05:59a Facebook
06:00profile for this guy. And on the surface, he just looks like some normal married guy, family dude.
06:06He's got a pet. But what I find out next is just mind blowing.
06:13This guy is a cop.
06:20He has lived a life of sworn to protect the community, yet he leads this double life
06:25where he's soliciting someone to have sex with children. It really makes me sick to my stomach
06:29to say these things. At the end of the day, he's a pervert with a badge.
06:36The next thing that Brandon needs to do is really establish, is this guy, Denerd,
06:40going to follow through in what he's been saying online and actually show up to engage in a sex act
06:46with a child. We're talking over the holiday period. He says he wishes he could have my girls under the
06:54Christmas tree and unwrap them slowly. I mean, what do you say to that? He's most certainly having
07:04some sort of Christmas with his family, but he's stepping away to go to the computer and tell me
07:09these things. Jekyll and Hyde. That's what it is. It's Jekyll and Hyde.
07:16After several months of Brandon working this undercover Laura profile and offering up for
07:20these two girls, Denerd finally makes a suggestion for a meet in real life,
07:25and he's going to engage in a sexual encounter with two kids.
07:32He's making it very clear he wants an entire weekend with these kids
07:38sexually abusing these children.
07:43Now that he's given me a concrete day, I think it's time to make an op plan. I'm going to
07:48go
07:48meet with Tony to do that now. You know, this is an absolute worst case scenario for us. There's so
07:55many things that could go wrong. One, this guy knows every tactic used by law enforcement. We have
08:01to confront him at his house. We've got to come up with a plan that's not going to alert him
08:06that he's
08:07being arrested. He's got guns or at least a gun. He could barricade. We could get into a shootout.
08:13There's so many variables and this thing is so touchy. It's like a powder keg about to explode.
08:19Okay. I got a plan.
08:23We use what he knows about what we do to help us and benefit us, right? So his house is
08:30here.
08:31He's got a street here and he's got a neighbor right across the street there. What if we park this,
08:36the SWAT van right here, put an ambulance here and make it look like we're at some police operation
08:45across the street. And then before he has a time to think about it, they surround him. We have him
08:50put his hands on his head and disarm him. So putting the SWAT truck and an ambulance directly in front
08:55of
08:55his house. It's crazy. It's genius though. We need this guy to be so dismissive. Like,
09:01who knew I was across the street from a crime or a criminal when in fact it's for him.
09:13We're set up right in front of Daynert's address, waiting for him to come out. It's like six o'clock
09:20in
09:20the morning. They know full well, this is the normal time that Daynert leaves to go to work.
09:25The whole anticipation is unlike anything else because everybody's anxious. Everybody's amped up.
09:31It's really nerve wracking.
09:39And then he comes out of his house, cup of coffee in hand, oblivious to what's going on.
09:46His focus is on the SWAT guys, and he doesn't really have a moment to think about what might be
09:52happening.
09:54They all turn. They focus all their weapons on him.
09:57I just need you to get your hands up.
09:59You're going to relieve me of that?
10:00And they get him into custody.
10:06We're not going to cuff you as long as you're compliant, okay? I'm, I'm perfect.
10:10You're good.
10:10All I had at this point was a search warrant. That's part of the reason why we don't handcuff him.
10:15So that we can build a rapport to hopefully get him to agree to an interview.
10:20We're going to speak with you and explain exactly what's going on. We told everyone the same thing.
10:23If you'll just bear with us just a second.
10:26I'm a little curious as to whether he's going to talk to us. I mean,
10:30he knows what an interview is like for a police officer or an investigator in this case.
10:35Before Brandon conducts his interview, the team searches Daynert's home.
10:39We're free and clear to move you in there. We're going to show you what we've seen.
10:46So this looks like a computer room.
10:49What they're looking for, obviously, is anything capable of connecting to the internet.
10:53Look at that. There's more computers here. There's a laptop right there.
10:57They seize 40 electronic devices in total. SD cards, memory sticks, cameras, laptops,
11:03everything you can imagine, all of which has to be submitted and examined forensically.
11:09Have a seat in the front there for me.
11:13The fact that he's doing this interview in the car, this is a really common tactic that we use.
11:18Get them while they're really thinking what is going on and see if we can capitalize on it.
11:28I'm baffled. The fact that this guy who's been in law enforcement talking to a detective about
11:34this type of crime and doesn't ask for a lawyer blows my mind.
11:42Detective Branton Poor confronts one of his own, Deputy Sheriff Donald Daynert.
11:47Do you have any idea why we would be here at your house this early with a search warrant?
11:52That's why I kept asking you. Okay.
11:55My belief is Daynert knows why we're there, but he doesn't know how much we know.
12:00What's your primary method for talking to folks on the internet besides adult friend?
12:04Talking to folks? Yes, sir.
12:08Y'all are not going to know anything anyway.
12:12IRC chat, I forget what it's called. Okay.
12:14Okay. And what screen names, usernames do you use on that?
12:19Love Jean. Spell that for me. L-O-V-E-S-Y-N-G.
12:23Daynert opens up to us quite a bit. He was a lot more forthright than I expected him to be.
12:30What did you talk with Laura on IRC about?
12:35Well, I mean, you've got all this. You've got all the, you know, I'm sure the screen shots or
12:42whatever and stuff like that, you know, and at this point, I'm probably assuming that
12:47it was, you know, one of y'all, not somebody that y'all are investigating or whatever.
12:52He's saying right there, he thinks it was one of us or maybe even me, and I'm not going to
12:57let him
12:57know it was.
12:58It was all fantasy, so I'm not going to act on any of it.
13:01When you say fantasy, what do you mean by that?
13:04Like, what were your...
13:05It was just sexual fantasies, sexual gratification, sexual fantasies.
13:09Okay. So you were fantasizing about sex with her children?
13:13Her and her kids or, you know, or whatever. I mean, it was just...
13:17How old were the children that you were fantasizing about?
13:19I don't remember how she said they were.
13:21Okay.
13:22I mean, I don't remember.
13:23If I told you that she said they were 5 and 11?
13:28Could be, but, you know, like I said, people change the stories and change things.
13:34I think that he's thinking, if this weren't a real person with real kids, then it's not even
13:41that big of a deal.
13:44You know, some of the horrible things that he said and that he planned to do.
13:48If you read through the communications, there's no indication that this was anything other than
13:54something he wanted to act out.
13:56Is there going to be anything on a laptop, cell phone, computer, or anything in the house
14:01involving any sort of child pornography, child erotica, child exploitation material of any sort?
14:08I viewed stuff on the one laptop that's in the bedroom.
14:12Is there any other place other than that laptop where you've ever put any of those images,
14:19videos, files, any USBs, hard drives, anything like that, if we were to run one of our dogs
14:26around searching for...
14:28I had a USB.
14:29I think that particular one was erased a long time ago.
14:33If there was any doubt about how real this is in his life, he's now admitted to viewing
14:40child sex abuse material on his laptop and moving it to a thumb drive.
14:45The fact that we're now going to find CSAM in the home on more than one device means that it's
14:52additional charges and additional crimes that we have to investigate as well.
14:57Life's over at this point anyway, so why?
15:00Why do you say that?
15:03Look, I'm, you know, just like you said before, I'm in this business.
15:07We both know.
15:10This is it for me.
15:15I mean, I know these guys.
15:16The guy just walked out.
15:17I went through the academy with him.
15:19Right.
15:21This is why we're talking to him.
15:22My reputation is completely destroyed.
15:25I don't view Daynert any differently than any of my other child predators.
15:30The fact that Daynert was a police officer
15:33just meant that he was a predator that flew under the radar until we could catch him.
15:37Brandon did a great job.
15:39And he's able to get information from Daynert that he had a USB device
15:43that had child sex abuse material on it.
15:46A recovery of that device and a further examination of that device
15:49revealed 1,000-plus images of child sex abuse material.
15:54I'm sorry.
15:55By taking the oath that I took and wearing the badge that I wear,
15:58I have disrespected you than anybody else that wears a badge.
16:10What we know about people who prey on kids is they're the teachers and the pastors and the
16:16doctors and the farmers and the plumbers and everyone else around you that looks just like
16:22anyone else to you.
16:23It's 2009. Detectives join forces to stop a predator who's exposing himself to a child.
16:31He's transmitting webcam. He's panning up, showed his face.
16:35You can't make this stuff up, right? These guys are so pathetic.
16:40I might have said I was going to, but I was never going to do it.
16:45Every once in a while, we find an offender that's so twisted,
16:48it shocks even a seasoned veteran like me. This guy, Michael Van Meter, sent a boatload of child
16:54sex abuse material to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl. We had to coordinate to get
16:59this guy caught with his pants down, literally.
17:11I got a phone call from Lieutenant Gary Marcus. He was a friend and colleague on the ICAC task
17:16force in a different county in North Texas. And he was kind of in a bit of a panic because
17:20he's like,
17:21hey, man, I'm online in an undercover capacity talking to this suspect that lives in your city,
17:26and I need you to check it out.
17:32In 2009, Yahoo was a big kid on the block.
17:35They had numerous chat rooms. There could be tens of thousands of people in these chat rooms.
17:43I was actually going into these chat rooms looking for individuals that search for underage
17:49children to have sex with. Gary tells me he created this profile, Texas Girl 13.
17:54He was a 13-year-old female. And he tells me that he got contacted right away by a user
17:59named MV57.
18:04MV57 wanted to know my age, sex, and location. And I told him I was 13, female, and I lived
18:10in Texas.
18:14He didn't even blink at the age of 13.
18:23My undercover name is Alexis.
18:26Nice to meet you, Mike.
18:29The next communication is, you ever been with an older man?
18:35I replied, I'm still a virgin.
18:39His end goal is for Alexis to start trusting him.
18:43Like really creepy predator behavior, right? But it gets worse.
18:48Within minutes, this same user, MV57, began to send me images of child sexual abuse material,
18:55or CSAM, as we refer to it.
18:58You know, typically in these investigations, I get a picture of their junk that they want to show off to
19:03a
19:03young girl. But this is like taking a two-by-four to the head. This is some hardcore child pornography.
19:09That's a felony to share or send child sexual abuse material to another person.
19:14It pisses me off. The fact that this guy is willing to go and share horrible material with what he
19:21thinks
19:21is a real kid. The rapid nature in which this happened is really concerning, was really concerning
19:26for Gary. We don't know who he is. And at the end of the day, he could be doing something
19:31to a real kid.
19:32I need to identify him quickly.
19:40Lieutenant Marcus is communicating with a determined online predator called MV57.
19:46A few weeks into the chat, he receives a friend request.
19:50Oh, wow. That took his display name off and his first and last name is visible. That's his freaking name,
19:57Michael Van Meter.
20:01It's a surreal moment because you're thinking, how dumb can you be? Like, you are out here doing this crime.
20:07You're doing things and soliciting a child for sexual purposes, yet you're dumb enough to put your real name on
20:14your profile information.
20:17And then Michael Van Meter began transmitting live webcam feed.
20:24This feed began in his genitals and then moved up to his face.
20:30Then I took a screenshot of his face.
20:36Just goes to show you these guys are not the brightest bulbs in the box.
20:41We have a picture of him. We have his name. Now we can determine who he is and where he's
20:46at.
20:47A search on the police database reveals that Van Meter lives within Tony's jurisdiction.
20:55When Lieutenant Marcus calls me to tell me about this predator, Michael Van Meter, who lives in my city,
21:01that's a real concern for me. Because this guy's talking about the things he's talking about and sharing
21:05that material, I move right away to start working on that.
21:12As Gary and I discuss a way to get Van Meter out into the open to get him arrested,
21:17he throws a curveball that really floors us and it kind of changes the course of everything that we do.
21:24I get a message and the message says, it's my birthday on Monday.
21:28I hope to obtain a great birthday present. And I respond, what would it be?
21:35Van Meter replies, seeing my 12 and 14 year old neighbor kids naked.
21:44When he says, hey, it's my birthday weekend and I might have access or availability to a real kid
21:50and see some kids naked as like a birthday present kind of a thing. I'm like, I'm going
21:55to put eyes on this guy. I'm going to put eyes on his house and I'm going to get a
21:59team of people
21:59together to make sure that doesn't happen. Tony and Lieutenant Marcus devise a plan to
22:05snare Michael Van Meter. Gary, if he's on the computer with Van Meter while we're setting up
22:11to do the arrest warrant and search warrant, the chances of him being able to access a kid
22:16are minimized. So this is kind of a dual plan that we have in place. It's not going to be
22:22simple,
22:22but we're going to make it happen.
22:28August 7, 2009, this is Detective Godwin. It is 533, 533 PM. I'm sitting outside the target house
22:37for this gentleman right here, Michael Van Meter. As I'm sitting here, I'm in contact also with Gary
22:44Marcus. The reality is I got to keep eyes on this place while all the other moving parts are happening.
22:49As soon as that warrant is signed, we're going to hit the house. I get the team to do a
22:55perimeter
22:55around the house. And we have some radio chatter going back and forth. And I have a teammate that
23:00tells me, hey, I can see through a window and I can see Van Meter sitting in a computer.
23:07I'm communicating with Van Meter in chat messenger. He actually starts transmitting video footage.
23:15So I call Tony and I tell him he has no idea that y'all are outside.
23:25We're at the front of the residence and I'm banging on the door. Police, police, search warrant,
23:29open the door, open the door. The door gets opened and I'm greeted by what I believe is the roommate.
23:34I talk to Tony and say, you know, this is what he's doing. He's masturbating on webcam.
23:37I send two guys immediately down the hall. They beeline straight for Van Meter's door.
23:43They push right through. And guess what they see? There he is in all his glory,
23:49pants and underwear down around his ankle. He's in full bloom, just masturbating away.
23:55You can't make this stuff up, right? These guys are so pathetic. They're such deviants.
24:02I'm walking into the room and I'm on the phone with Gary Marcus. And so I take my badge off
24:07and I just
24:07kind of zoom it up into the webcam on the computer.
24:13What a nice finish to see this guy finally into custody. Bagged and tagged and he's not hurting a real
24:18kid.
24:23Detective Godwin's team searches the home of child predator Michael Van Meter following his arrest.
24:28There's loads of child sex abuse material. And he's got a map that's laid out. And on that map,
24:34he's got an area that's designated right where Gary Marcus' undercover profile is, Alexis.
24:42And that's really indicative of what this guy's real intent was. He's now mapping out a drive to go to
24:49this location, which is a couple hours away, to have a sexual encounter with what he believed to be a
24:55child.
24:58Van Meter agrees to have an interview without a lawyer present.
25:02I love the interview process. I don't care that I haven't eaten, that I haven't slept,
25:07that I've been up for hours. It doesn't make any difference.
25:10Why do you think you're down here today?
25:12I don't know. It looks like dope.
25:15What do you mean you're dope?
25:16I was on the internet.
25:18What were you doing on the internet?
25:21Just chatting.
25:23He's got his head in his hand. Like, he's so broken. In my mind, I'm thinking this is right
25:29where I want him to be, because this is the best case scenario for me to get this guy to
25:33confess to everything.
25:34Did Texas Girl 13 explain to you that she was 13 years old?
25:40And when she told you she was 13, did you continue to talk to her?
25:43Yes.
25:44What did you guys talk about?
25:46She said, stupid things.
25:48Stupid things.
25:49She wanted me to meet her.
25:53You were preparing to do that?
25:54No, I wasn't. I was never going to do that.
25:57Michael.
25:58I wasn't.
25:59I was not going to meet her.
26:01Now, I fully believe that you intended to do that.
26:04No, I wouldn't.
26:06I might have said I was going to do that.
26:08I was never going to intend to do that.
26:10I just said that.
26:12But I was never going to do it.
26:14He says, no, I was never going to go meet that child.
26:17Dude, give me a break.
26:18We found a map to her location at your place.
26:22Michael, listen to me.
26:23I've seen some of the images that you sent her.
26:26I've seen some of the videos that you sent her.
26:30How would you describe those images, Michael?
26:32He's safe.
26:34Other than sick, how would you describe them?
26:37What were the images of?
26:40Young kids.
26:41Young kids.
26:42Young kids.
26:44Pre-pubescent kids?
26:45Yes.
26:46What were the ages of those kids that you sent images of, if you had to guess?
26:52Eight, nine.
26:53Do you have a liking for seeing naked children that have not reached puberty?
26:59Not really.
27:00I don't even know why I put a lot in here.
27:03Mine.
27:03Well, yeah, a little, all right, but a little.
27:07This guy is so creepy.
27:10The type of material that he sent and forwarded to this child is so disturbing, so unnerving.
27:17It would shock the conscience of the American public if they actually had to see something like that.
27:22It's the most deplorable, disgusting stuff on the planet.
27:31The takeaway for me on this Van Meter case is he shared child sex abuse material, horrific stuff, in a
27:37moment's notice, like 10 minutes, within talking to this 13-year-old girl.
27:42So, as a parent, be super vigilant. You'd rather know full well what's going on and where they're going than
27:48being in the dark and letting them get exposed to a predator like Michael Van Meter.
27:53It's 2012. Detective Tony Godwin is in a race against time to stop a predatory boyer.
28:00I think he'd like to take pictures.
28:03He is the creepiest of the creepiest, the worst of the worst.
28:08Never in one year since I imagined this would happen.
28:13You know, once in a while you get a case that just blows your mind.
28:16That is this case for me, Christian Gesicki.
28:18This started out as like an inappropriate conversation with a young girl who was spending the night with his stepdaughter,
28:24and it morphed into something that was unbelievable.
28:28Deviant behavior that nobody was really expecting.
28:31This guy, hidden in plain sight.
28:33I'm proud that we were able to get this guy off the street and behind bars.
28:42I'm proud of you.
28:46On July 7th of 2012, I got a phone call from a concerned parent.
28:50She told me that her daughter, a 13 year old, was spending the night with her best friend Skylar.
28:55And while she was there, her best friend's stepdad had made some very inappropriate conduct and communications with her.
29:02I tell the mom that she needs to bring her daughter, Natasha, into the police station so I can have
29:06a conversation with her.
29:09Natasha is a fake name to protect the identity of the real victim.
29:13Natasha tells me around two in the morning, Skylar's stepfather, Christian Gesicki, and looked in the room and saw that
29:19she was awake and invited her to just watch TV.
29:22And they started watching friends, but then it kind of took a weird turn.
29:28Christian started to ask her very inappropriate questions.
29:32She is freaked out, right?
29:34But that doesn't deter him at all, because what he does next is shocking.
29:38He tries to show her pornography.
29:41She is completely frozen.
29:44She begins to cry.
29:46Christian then suggests, hey, why don't you go take a shower?
29:49Calm down.
29:49I'm just trying to help you.
29:51She's like, you know what?
29:52I think I'm just going to go back in the room.
29:56This is really creepy predator behavior, right?
29:59Natasha tells me she does not wake Skylar up.
30:01She just kind of lays there paralyzed in fear.
30:04She's able to get a couple hours of sleep.
30:06This guy is acting out.
30:07He's on a path to escalate to put his hands on a real kid.
30:11And that is a huge issue for me.
30:14The next step for me is to make sure that his wife and stepdaughter, Skylar, are in a safe place.
30:20So I have to interview them.
30:21And Skylar reveals some information to me that is absolutely mind-blowing and shocking.
30:26It scares me to the point where we are going to move on this guy immediately.
30:33Detective Tony Godwin interviews the mom and daughter who share a home with
30:37suspected child predator Christian Gazicki.
30:40Thankfully, I'm able to get Skylar and her mom to the PD about 1 o'clock,
30:44get them away from this guy who I now am believing 100% is a predator.
30:49How are you doing today?
30:50Not too bad.
30:51I expect them to be doing today, but hopefully we will make it with your families.
30:58When Skylar comes in, she's nervous and she's a little scared.
31:01And you can just see that the bottom of their world has dropped out.
31:06Christian, he was just the dad at my house.
31:09And he was very trustworthy, taught us how to protect ourselves and taught us how to look out for ourselves,
31:15too.
31:16Never in a million years did I imagine this would happen.
31:19What I want to do is try to talk to you to clarify some things.
31:25I have a daughter of the same age and so I really connected with her and then she tells me
31:30a story that blows my mind.
31:32I have this big cabinet thing and I was getting a shampoo out of there and there was like this
31:38black thing, like this big, it was like this thick and it was like hot, like warm, like it's been
31:45used, like it's like on and then there was a green and a red dot on the side of it,
31:51like right there.
31:53A bunch of things are going through my mind.
31:56I'm thinking back to what Natasha said, that how he's like, oh, calm down, you should go take a shower
32:01and calm down.
32:02Now Skylar's telling me about this weird black box that's in the room.
32:06I had a bad feeling that it might have been a camera.
32:11I'm like, this guy is sick.
32:18Hidden cameras for his stepdaughter, wildly inappropriate.
32:22Request to a 13 year old girl who's spending the night.
32:25He makes me sick to my stomach.
32:27Where is this guy?
32:28Because I need to get him right now.
32:32I'm going to put a surveillance team on his house to start watching him, but I can't afford him to
32:37start deleting evidence.
32:38However, I still need to interview Sarah, Skylar's mom and figure out her side of things as well.
32:44I know that this is very likely feeling like a new mom is like climbing in your lap.
32:49I understand some of this stuff is obviously very sensitive, it's very difficult.
32:57She is really, really upset, obviously about what's happened with Natasha, now what's going on with her own daughter.
33:07She lets me know that, you know, her and Christian lived together for several years, but they've only been married
33:11about a year.
33:12I want to try to find a way to have a conversation with his wife and figure out what it
33:19is that sexually turns him on.
33:22I'm building up this pattern of behavior because the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.
33:27What about in regards to Christian, does he have any kind of fetish?
33:32I think he likes taking pictures or seeing pictures of girls naked.
33:40So like a voyeuristic kind of thing or an exhibitionist kind of thing or?
33:44Voyeuristic meaning him watching.
33:47Right.
33:47Right.
33:48So something like that, yeah.
33:53Sarah's a trooper in this.
33:54Like, she gets it and she understands it and so she's very candid and clear with me.
34:00I know you said he likes to take pictures and compromising kind of photos.
34:04How about some with, like, surveillance cameras and, you know?
34:07He has surveillance cameras and they're just in the garage in a box.
34:11I mean, he's got tons of, I mean, almost order.
34:17He has tons of cameras.
34:19Like, he's always recording.
34:21He's got all this different equipment.
34:23And in my mind, I'm like, holy smokes.
34:26Like, the lid has come off this can, right?
34:30I talked to Sarah about what Skylar said about this hidden device that she found in the bathroom.
34:35And Sarah pulls out this small, square device.
34:44As soon as I saw it, I knew this is not a camera.
34:48This is a decoy.
34:49And so that tells me, oh, my gosh.
34:51Like, this guy is so paranoid that he switched out the camera for this fake DVD drive.
34:58Time is really of the essence because where's the camera?
35:05And then I go in and his computer's not there.
35:08I'm like, well, what if he's trying to delete something?
35:11If what was in that bathroom that Skylar described is a camera, I know that it has to probably be
35:17viewed
35:18on a laptop, which means if he's moving evidence or transferring evidence or disposing of evidence,
35:23that could be my case.
35:24I'm going to try to get him arrested immediately.
35:28Once I finish the interview with Sarah, like, I'm moving to secure an arrest warrant for Christian.
35:32While I'm waiting to get the warrant signed by the judge, I check in with my surveillance team,
35:36who've been sitting on his house.
35:38And then at 3.53 p.m., they tell me they spotted him.
35:41He's coming back out, black shirt, black pants, carrying a bag or something.
35:46He's carrying a bag, which tells me he's maybe trying to get rid of more evidence.
35:50I just don't have the warrant signed yet.
35:52So they can't do anything except watch him and follow him if he leaves.
36:06If they see him do a traffic violation, what that allows them to do is get him stopped,
36:11get him identified, and hold him. That way he's not getting rid of anything.
36:21He's driving like a weirdo, like he's doing what we call a heat run.
36:25A heat run is what it is when someone is suspicious the police might be watching him.
36:30This guy's paranoia is through the roof, but he's following all the traffic laws.
36:39It looks like he's having this meltdown with himself. This guy, he is unhinged.
36:50Tony's team is tailing the vehicle of child predator Christian Gazicki.
36:57And I tell them over the radio, it's a go. I've got it.
37:09Two of the four covert guys jump out.
37:17They jump and grab ahold of him. They're getting him cuffed up.
37:25The uniform squad's able to get there, take him and put him in the car,
37:28pay him, get him into custody before he's able to do anything with that bag that he had.
37:39He's like, well, what's the warrant for? Come on, dude. Like, you know what the warrant's for. You've
37:43been driving around doing crazy, manic, stupid things for the last half an hour. You know you're
37:49caught. Once they let me know that he's in custody and he's on his way to the jail, they tell
37:54me that
37:54they found a black briefcase. Inside that black briefcase were two laptops. And so that stuff
37:59was seized as evidence and brought back to the station.
38:06Gazicki refuses to speak to Tony without a lawyer.
38:10I'm sick because this is where I wanted this guy in the room to get him to open up. And
38:16now I can't.
38:18I'm able to get the search warrant for Gazicki's residence. I cannot even begin to tell you the
38:23staggering amount of stuff that we found. Hard drives, computers, laptops, tablets, tons and tons
38:30of stuff. But the most telling thing that I found was a box. And that box was for a hidden
38:35camera
38:35that looked very much like what Schuyler described was in the bathroom.
38:41Tony reviews the video files recovered from Gazicki's electronic devices.
38:52This is a clip of Christian Gazicki's bedroom. And then all of a sudden you see Christian Gazicki
38:59with no clothes on, lean over and look directly at the camera. Just to check the angle, the view,
39:07what can the camera see? What can he see as the camera goes?
39:13We found hidden videos taken of various women who appeared to be adults who, unbeknownst to them,
39:19they were being recorded. But the biggest, most damaging thing that I found were the hidden
39:24videos of Schuyler. This is an image inside Schuyler's private bathroom. This is a test run. This is
39:33Christian Gazicki walking in. It's motion activated. He wants to know is it going to come on like it's
39:37supposed to. He flushes the toilet, validates that it's Don, and he turns right out and walks out.
39:45This is the absolute slam dunk that we needed. This is so depraved and so disgusting. The fact
39:51that he's been in this kid's life for eight years and he's reached this level, that is disgusting.
39:57I'm shocked. I'm appalled.
39:58Why did I not have a reason to trust my stepdad, you know? Especially as a fatherly figure,
40:04that should be the number one person that is supposed to protect you.
40:10The forensic specialists that I turned everything over to to examine have come back to me and told
40:14me they found over 4,000 images of suspected child sex abuse material. In addition, over 162
40:21suspected child pornography videos or child sex abuse material videos. They got a divorce shortly after,
40:28which was relieving, especially for my mom. I mean, do you want to do that as soon as possible?
40:34Every flag goes off with this guy. Like, he is the creepiest of the creepiest,
40:38the worst of the worst. This guy I despise on so many levels. Everything that he represents
40:44is exactly why I do this job. It was definitely a sense of relief when he was sentenced to 20
40:56years.
40:57Natasha and I are still best friends. I think it was satisfying for all of us. You could kind of
41:04just
41:04take a deep breath and just move on too from it. Kind of get the closure that we all needed.
41:13Statistics tell us that over 90% of children who are abused sexually or emotionally are done so by
41:19someone they know and they trust. This is the case with Christian Gesicki. Child predators are everywhere.
41:26They come from all walks of life. There are professionals in this arena like me and teams of us
41:32all over the country. This is what we do. This is our playground. If you're a predator, if you're out
41:39there and you're preying on children, guess what? We're looking for you and we're going to find you.
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