OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – There’s new information on a case involving an Oakland County Deputy.
Local 4 has learned that the deputy has now been fired for trying to solicit sex from an underage girl online.
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That deputy had just started working the overnight shift at the Oakland County Jail a couple of months ago.
Now the question is whether that deputy will face charges.
Local 4 doesn’t know that yet because the deputy was outed by a private citizen named Rob Lee.
“I catch them on the Whisper App,” said Lee.
Read: Deputy working in Oakland County Jail suspended without pay amid investigation into ‘wrongdoing’
Lee believes it’s his job, however dangerous, to expose those who go online and troll for teens.
“I asked him if he was at work, and he said he worked at the jail, so you know I acted like a kid and said, ‘what are you a guard or something?’ And he said, ‘yeah, I’m a guard.’”
Seen in the video player above is a screengrab of his part of the online conversation they apparently had.
He also sent Lee his picture.
“I posted his picture on Facebook, and people recognized him,” Lee said.
That word made it to Sheriff Mike Bouchard Sunday (Sept. 4) night, who brought the deputy in to speak with investigators.
“This was a five-month probationary employee that clearly did not live up to the ethics, standards, and judgment that we expect from employees and he’s no longer employed here,” said Bouchard.
Lee says he’s helped others to the unemployment line too.
“He’s a child predator who had to be exposed,” Lee said. “I mean, I’ve caught 35. He’ll be number 35 that I caught.”
Bouchard said Lee’s activities are legal and, in this case, helpful but also unadvisable.
“Well-intentioned but dangerous,” Bouchard said. “We would encourage folks to leave it to the professionals that know two things. The criminal standard required for conviction, a and b know how to contain something if it begins to so south.”
“It’s surprising how easy it was to catch him because he just wasn’t thinking right,” Lee said. “He just told me you work at the jail like that’s enough right there to make you go like, ‘wow, that’s stupid dude.’”
The deputy turned in all of his sheriff’s equipment, including his badge.
Now it’s up to the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office whether there is enough evidence to make a criminal case.
Bouchard says he’s not sure about that.
