B2 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019 LATIMES.COM
SAN DIEGO — A new
court filing by prosecutors in
the case against Rep. Dun-
can Hunter says the law-
maker was warned as early
as 2010 that he and his wife
were breaking the law by im-
properly spending cam-
paign funds.
The filing says they
bought a camera for family
vacation and tried listing the
expenditure as ink, paper
and software for the office.
They also spent campaign
money on a trip to his daugh-
ter’s Irish dance
competition in Phoenix be-
cause they couldn’t afford it,
the filing states.
At one point, the filing
says, a former treasurer
threatened to quit if Hunter
didn’t take the campaign
credit card away from his
wife.
The allegations are part
of arguments prosecutors
filed Monday with the U.S.
District Court, asking the
court to disqualify an attor-
ney slated to join Hunter’s
defense team before the law-
maker’s criminal trial in Jan-
uary.
Hunter (R-Alpine) noti-
fied the court last month
that San Diego-based attor-
ney Paul J. Pfingst would
represent him in the crimi-
nal proceedings. Pfingst said
he expected prosecutors to
allege a conflict of interest
because another attorney in
Pfingst’s firm, John Rice, has
represented witnesses in the
criminal investigation who
have appeared before the
grand jury in the case.
The prosecutors’ motion
said Pfingst’s firm, Higgs
Fletcher & Mack, “is faced
with an actual and unwaiv-
able conflict of interest be-
cause it has represented
since early 2017 — and con-
tinues to represent — multi-
ple witnesses in this action,
who have already provided
adverse testimony leading
to Hunter’s indictment and
are expected to provide
equally damaging adverse
testimony at trial.”
Reached by phone Mon-
day, Pfingst said in response
to the filing, “I think
Congressman Hunter
should be allowed to pick his
lawyer, rather than the pros-
ecution picking his lawyer.
“I don’t know why they
are trying so hard to keep me
off the case,” Pfingst said. “I
didn’t know I was so intimi-
dating.”
Hunter is scheduled to
begin trial Jan. 22 on a 60-
count indictment accusing
him and his wife and former
campaign manager, Mar-
garet Hunter, of fraud, con-
spiracy and other crimes
stemming from their alleged
use of more than $250,000 in
campaign money to pay for
personal expenses such as
video games, dental work,
their children’s private
school tuition, a family vaca-
tion to Italy and more.
Both pleaded not guilty
when they were arraigned in
August 2018. Margaret Hunt-
er reached a deal with prose-
cutors and changed her plea
in June to guilty to one count
of conspiracy. She agreed to
cooperate with the prose-
cution and testify against
her husband.
Congressman Hunter
continues to fight the
charges as he runs for reelec-
tion, starting with a March 3
primary election.
According to the motion
prosecutors filed Monday,
Rice has represented since
March 2017 three govern-
ment witnesses: Bruce
Young, Sheila Hardison and
Joseph Browning.
All three had worked for
the campaigns or the con-
gressional office of Hunter’s
father, former Rep. Duncan
L. Hunter, before joining the
younger Hunter’s campaign,
and all three were close
friends with the Hunter fam-
ily, prosecutors wrote in the
filing.
Prosecutors argued that
“each of the witnesses repre-
sented by Higgs describe
facts that support the
charges alleged in the indict-
ment, and directly contra-
dict Hunter’s protestations
of innocence.”
For example, the govern-
ment argued, Young testi-
fied before the grand jury
that when he worked as
Hunter’s campaign treas-
urer from 2007 until Feb. 1,
2013, he reported “various
expenditures” on Federal
Election Commission re-
ports as legitimate cam-
paign expenses, “when in
fact those representations
were false. Young relied on
false information provided
by both Margaret and Dun-
can Hunter to make these in-
correct disclosures,” the fil-
ing says.
Prosecutors said Young
testified that he told Hunter
that Margaret was spending
too much money on items
that would raise a red flag
with the election commis-
sion, and that Young threat-
ened to leave his post with
the campaign if Hunter did
not take away his wife’s cam-
paign credit card.
Young also testified that
Hunter told him that a $
charge to the campaigncredit card at Best Buy was a
legitimate campaign ex-
pense “consisting of the pur-
chase of ‘ink, paper and soft-
ware Microsoft office for
mac [for the MacBook
Air],’ ” when financial re-
cords revealed the payment
was for a Nikon CoolPix dig-
ital camera “used to photo-
graph the Hunter family on a
personal vacation to Idaho,”
according to the govern-
ment’s court filing.
Hardison, another wit-
ness represented by Rice,
worked for Hunter’s father
and for Hunter’s campaign
as a fundraiser after the
elder Hunter retired. In 2013
Margaret Hunter took over
her duties.
Hardison testified beforethe grand jury that Hunter
was aware as early as 2010
that “Margaret was using
her campaign credit card for
personal expenses and that
it was a crime to do so,” and
that Hunter had been told
“often” that “campaign
funds could not be for leisure
outings at which the discus-
sion occasionally focused on
the campaign,” prosecutors
wrote in the filing.
The third witness repre-
sented by Rice, Browning,
had worked as a field repre-
sentative on Hunter’s con-
gressional staff.
Browning testified before
the grand jury that, among
other things, Hunter did not
have enough personal funds
to pay for basic necessities,that Hunter’s personal fi-
nances were so poor he
could not afford to pay for his
daughter’s dance lessons,
that Hunter recognized he
could not use campaign
funds for social activities
and that “Hunter traveled to
Phoenix in January 2016 for
his daughter’s Irish dance
competition and visited
Browning to ‘take a look at
[his] retirement place’ —
but did not discuss any cam-
paign business.”
According to a footnote
in the court filing, “At the
time of the trip, Hunter re-
ported to his chief of staff
that he timed the trip so that
he could hold a campaign
‘meeting with a (charity
event) coordinator’ in Arizo-na.
“Campaign records dem-
onstrate that Hunter used
at least $632 in campaign
funds to pay for this social
visit to Phoenix,” the foot-
note says.
Prosecutors said in the
filing that Browning “is also
aware of additional adverse
sensitive activity that runs
the risk of improperly taint-
ing the jury pool before the
trial begins and so will not be
detailed herein.”
Defense attorneys have
argued that these witnesses
had not disclosed client con-
fidences to Rice that would
adversely affect Pfingst’s
ability to zealously repre-
sent Hunter, and they disa-
greed that the witnesses’
testimony was adverse to
Hunter’s legal position.
Prosecutors argued in
the filing that the court must
disqualify Pfingst because it
has a duty to protect the in-
tegrity of the judicial process
and the public confidence in
fair and equitable proceed-
ings — even if it means deny-
ing Hunter his choice of at-
torney.
“Hunter has repeatedly
attacked the integrity of this
judicial proceeding, in gen-
eral, and the motivations of
the Department of Justice,
in particular,” the filing says.
“Although this might be fair
game whenever an elected
official is indicted for corrup-
tion, it is critical that the
public have no reason to call
into question the legitimacy
of the jury’s verdict —
whether it be guilty or not
guilty.”
Specifically, prosecutors
argued, the court should
prevent any appearance
that Hunter is permitted to
hire an attorney who offers
unfair access to the private
thoughts of witnesses the at-
torney will be called to cross-
examine.
Hunter’s defense attor-
neys will be allowed to sub-
mit a brief in response to the
government’s motion for
disqualification before a
hearing on the matter,
scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Nov.
25, at the federal courthouse
in San Diego.Cook writes for the San
Diego Union-Tribune.Hunter expensed dance trip, U.S. says
REP. DUNCAN HUNTER,center, with attorneys Devin Burstein, left, and Gregory Vega in August. Federal
prosecutors are petitioning to disqualify an attorney slated to join Hunter’s defense team in his criminal trial.John GibbinsSan Diego Union-TribuneCongressman couldn’t
afford his daughter’s
lessons and travel,
and he used campaign
funds, prosecutors say.
By Morgan Cook
SAN DIEGO — They call
themselves the Creep
Catchers Unit.
For the last year, this
small group of 20-some-
things has run citizen stings
in the region, particularly
North County, posing as
young teens on dating sites,
and agreeing to meet with
people they suspect are try-
ing to lure them for sex.
“CC_Unit” records the
meetup — more of a con-
frontation — then posts the
video online, along with the
chat logs, some of which look
pretty damning. In one, a
man asks the teen if he
should bring a condom.
After a recorded en-
counter with CC_Unit last
spring, a Camp Pendleton
Marine in his 30s was court-
martialed, sentenced to six
months in the brig and
drummed out of the service
with a dishonorable dis-
charge.
In another instance earli-
er this year, military-focused
online news outlet Task &
Purpose reported that the
local creep-catchers posted
a video of a Navy sailor who
was questioned later by mili-
tary criminal investigators.
He later took his own life.
These sorts of citizen
sting operations can result
in public shaming but usu-
ally don’t lead to prose-
cution. Some hail them as ef-
fective, exposing predators
who target vulnerable young
people. Others worry be-
cause the operatives are un-
trained and the situations
are dangerous. And what
about due process for the ac-
cused?
Several groups in North
America and abroad use
similar tactics, and many
call themselves some varia-
tion of “creep catchers” or
“pedophile hunters.”
“It’s a bit of a Wild West,”
said Joe Purshouse, a lec-
turer at University of East
Anglia’s School of Law in the
United Kingdom. “It has be-come de-professionalized....
Anyone can do it.”
Purshouse, who studies
the phenomenon, pointed to
dangers. Some targets do
kill themselves. Others have
attacked the vigilante with
the camera.
But there are those who
believe it’s worth the risk.
The founder of the local
Creep Catchers Unit goes by
the moniker “Ghost.” The
San Diego Union-Tribune
communicated with him
through the group’s Face-
book page.
Ghost agreed to talk but
declined to provide his
name, citing a need for ano-
nymity as an aspect of the
group’s work.
“Public shaming is great
deterrent for predators,”
Ghost said. “Predators love
hiding in the shadows and
lurking/preying [on] vic-
tims. I shine the light on
darkness and expose them.”
And, he said, there is “ne-
ver vigilante violence.”
He said he started the
group in August 2018; it now
has three to five members,
all in their early 20s.
The local group has
posted more than 50 videos
online. The Union-Tribune
has viewed several of them.
Many of the recordings
show a disclaimer reading:
“We apologize to the family
and friends of the Pedophile
for bringing shame and em-
barrassment.”
Sometimes, the target
verbally denies exchanging
inappropriate or sexually
suggestive messages with
someone he had believed
was underage. At that point,
text from the chat logs reap-
pears on the screen to re-
mind the viewer what had
been said.Ghost told the Union-
Tribune that he makes de-
coy profiles on dating apps,
posing as a teen boy or girl.
Then the hits start coming.
“I never contact anyone
first,” Ghost said. “The
creep always messaged me
first. I let them know my age.
They acknowledge the age
and then talk sexual.”
The age he gives them in
the chats varies. In several of
the videos, he tells the target
he is 13 or 14. Sometimes he
tells them the decoy charac-
ter is in middle school.
The target — ages appear
to vary from 20s to 60s —
might ask the decoy what
time they get out of school.
The target might send a
selfie, sometimes shirtless.
Some don’t say anything ex-
plicitly suggestive. Some-
times, as seen in the videos,
they say they just want to
hang out with the teen.
They arrange to meet —
usually in a crowded spot. At
least one man shown in one
of the videos asks in a chat
log whether he should bring
condoms.
The targets in the videos,
all men, are surprised when
an adult with a cellphone
camera walks up. In each vi-
deo, their faces fall when he
calls them by name, then
calls them out for trying to
meet a kid.
If the target flees, Ghost
often chases them, asking
why they came to meet a
child. He yells that he has
called police.
Ghost said all of the
“catches” are recorded, but
not all have been posted on-
line yet. Sometimes after the
video is posted, CC_Unit fol-
lowers alert potentially in-
terested parties, including
the target’s employers.Last month, the Cal
State San Marcos student
newspaper reported that
one of the CC_Unit encoun-
ters led to an investigation of
a man who worked with stu-
dents on campus.
University authorities
confirmed that someone
sent an email directing offi-
cials to the video. The next
morning, law enforcement
was notified, as was the
man’s employer. A uni-
versity spokeswoman said
the person is no longer work-
ing on campus, but that “we
do have to allow for due proc-
ess.”
A Marine Corps spokes-
man at Camp Pendleton
confirmed the investiga-
tions of three locally based
military men seen in the
CC_Unit videos, including
the now-deceased sailor.
“All allegations of mis-
conduct are taken seriously
and thoroughly investi-
gated,” 2nd Lt. Brian Tuthill
said in an email, “and we
hold our Marines account-
able if they violate the Uni-
form Code of Military Jus-
tice.”
Of the other two men, one
was tried in military court
and convicted. No charges
were filed against the other.
Ghost said his group was
not involved in a citizen sting
in North County last month
that landed in the headlines.
In that instance, accord-
ing to the county Sheriff ’s
Department, a group of
teens hoped to expose an
Oceanside man they had
connected with online, and
suspected he was seeking to
have sex with a minor.
Arrangements were
made to meet the man in
Vista. There, one of the teens
— a 17-year-old girl — agreed
to get into his car. He drove
off with her without her con-
sent, the Sheriff ’s Depart-
ment said. She was able to
send her friends a message
asking for help. They called
law enforcement.
Deputies stopped the car
and arrested the man on
suspicion of kidnapping. Au-
thorities remain mum on the
case, citing the ongoing in-
vestigation.
The day after the Vista in-
cident, the Sheriff ’s Depart-
ment issued a statement
that it “strongly discouragesthe public from setting up
meetings or contacting any-
one for the purpose of catch-
ing an individual who is com-
mitting a crime.”
The situations, the de-
partment warned, “can be
extremely dangerous.”
Last week, Sheriff ’s Lt.
Justin White reiterated the
danger, and said people who
conduct such operations
need to be properly trained
with resources at the ready
to ensure everyone is safe.
“We as law enforcement
have specialized units that
deal with these type of situa-
tions,” White said. “This is
something that even a law
enforcement officer coming
out of the academy is not
trained to do.”
In San Diego, Riverside
and Imperial counties, cases
of child sexual exploitation
online are handled by the
San Diego Internet Crimes
Against Children Task
Force.
San Diego Police Sgt.
Dale Flamand, who super-
vises the task force, said
members sometimes do
similar undercover work. He
said each team member gets
at least 80 hours of training,
including how to gather evi-
dence that is likely to be ad-
missible in court.
He also said that, with
more kids on cellphones,
their case load has tripled.
Often, in cases of child mo-
lestation, the perpetrator is
familiar with the victim, but
online, more likely than not,
the luring comes from a
stranger.
But how does a stranger
entice a kid for sex? Teen-
agers who grew up on social
media have no problem see-
ing connections with people
they have never met before
as true relationships.
“It’s jaw-dropping, but to
a younger person, they don’t
see it as a stranger,” San Di-
ego Police spokesman Lt.
Shawn Takeuchi said.
Ghost said the online
chats are not a trick to entice
someone to commit a crime.
“I always let the creep
know how old the decoy is,”
Ghost said. “It’s not entrap-
ment when the creep knows
and acknowledges the age.”Figueroa writes for the San
Diego Union-Tribune.Vigilantes pose as minors to draw predators
‘Creep Catchers’
name and confront
adults who seek young
victims online.
By Teri FigueroaAN IMAGEfrom the introduction to a video pro-
duced by the San Diego-area group of 20-somethings.