A Kiowa man arrested in Hughes County following an undercover sting conducted in May by Oklahoma Predator Prevention was charged with several felony counts.
Court records show Thomas Udell King, 59, was charged in Hughes County District Court with lewd or indecent proposals to a child under 16, soliciting sexual conduct or communication with a minor by use of technology, and pattern of criminal offenses.
An affidavit filed in the case states that on May 25, dispatchers with the Hughes County Sheriff’s Office received a call from Oklahoma Predator Prevention stating the group was texting a man pretending to be a child.
OPP uses social media and other communication platforms to engage with predators using decoys and then turns them over to police, with a majority of confrontations streamed live on the group’s Facebook page.
The group told dispatchers the man was sending explicit texts to someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl and was on his way to meet the girl at an address in Stuart, the report states.
“She stated her husband and some others from the Oklahoma Predator Prevention were at the location,” and that the suspect was also there,” the affidavit states.
The responding deputy wrote in his report that he arrived at the address and pulled his vehicle behind the suspect’s vehicle and spoke with King before telling him an investigator was on their way.
Investigators were presented with a folder containing printouts of the sexually explicit messages between King and the team, the affidavit states.
Records show King is next due in court on Tuesday at the courthouse in Holdenville.
The video can be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1HPt5xcF34/