Pleasant Gap man faces sex charges after viral Facebook Live
A Pleasant Gap man was charged Friday with several attempted sex crimes after a monthslong Spring Township police investigation that was launched by a vigilante’s Facebook Live viewed tens of thousands of times.
Richard Gibson, of Cambria County, masqueraded as a teenage girl through a fictitious Facebook profile with the hope of catching and stopping sexual predators.
He received messages from William Kephart, who is accused of sending sexual photographs and explicit videos to the profile, police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause filed Friday.
Kephart, 47, also pushed to meet the fictitious girl Nov. 1 in the parking lot of Weis Markets along Westerly Parkway in State College, where he was confronted by Gibson for more than six minutes.
Kephart repeatedly said he “didn’t know it was a decoy” and would not have gone to the parking lot if he knew it was a fake profile. He also had a Mountain Dew, something he was asked to bring to the meeting.
An officer in November interviewed Kephart, who said he was “going through a breakup” and admitted to sending the explicit messages, photos and videos, police wrote.
Kephart also told the officer he “really screwed up,” police wrote. A defense lawyer for Kephart was not listed on a court document.
Gibson — a father of 13, including nine daughters — said Monday he “feel(s) great” about Kephart’s arrest.
“After the exposure and after what seemed to be a long wait, I felt the law wasn’t going to get involved any further,” Gibson said. “But now that I see this has happened, I feel so accomplished to have led the authorities to take a dangerous person off the streets.”
Kephart was charged with five felony counts of attempted possession of child pornography, four felony counts of criminal use of a communication facility and one felony count each of attempted statutory sexual assault, attempted sexual abuse of a child and attempted corruption of minors.
He was arraigned Friday by District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker, who set bail at $15,000. Kephart did not post bail and is detained at the Centre County Correctional Facility.
His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 2:54 PM.