A Lebanon man was arrested Sunday for the enticement of a minor. This arrest followed a “public outing’ livestream and captured online messages were disseminated by an activist group. The messages showed screenshots of communications between him and a child decoy.
Michael Rupe currently faces the misdemeanor charge of furnishing pornographic material or attempting to furnish to a minor.
The operation was coordinated between a Springfield-based Catch-a-Predator-esque activist group, Operation Soap, and one of its members, local Robert James Allen Sr., who runs the Missouri RSO Profiles Facebook page and who is Rupe’s ex brother-in-law.
According to Soap’s Facebook page, Soap alerted the Lebanon Police Department Saturday that they were on their way to confront Rupe and provided screenshots of messages between Rupe and a decoy account. The group, which included Allen, confronted Rupe later that day.
Over Saturday and Sunday, Soap and Missouri RSO Profiles alleged that the Laclede County Prosecutor’s Office and the LPD failed to take the information the group provided seriously, only acting when online backlash occurred on the department’s Saturday Facebook post referencing the incident.
The Laclede County Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment. The Lebanon Police Department’s Saturday post which attracted backlash referred to the activist group as vigilantes, later saying that the department does not support those who seek out individuals online and expect law enforcement to step outside of established legal procedures.
The LPD’s Saturday post also said that the department’s cybercrimes task force takes all allegations, including the one against Rupe, seriously.
On Sunday, the LPD released a statement noting the arrest of Rupe and that an official investigation into the suspect was opened upon receiving the Soap activist’s information. In the post, LPD Chief Jerry Harrison said that while he appreciates citizen cooperation, activist groups may jeopardize criminal investigations by not reporting incidents immediately.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's LCR.
