Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - An investigation conducted by a citizen group that seeks to identify online sexual predators has led to the filing of felony charges against a Rochester man.

42-year-old Jason Allen Jerde was arraigned today in Olmsted County Court on charges of soliciting a child or a person believed to be a child to engage in sexual conduct, engaging in electronic communication relating or describing sexual conduct with a child, and distributing material that relates or describes sexual conduct to a child. His conditional bail was set at $5000.

He was Reported By a Group of Online Investigators Named "The Predator Poachers"

According to the criminal complaint, a group calling itself the "Predator Poachers" contacted the Rochester Police Department on March 7. The court document says the organization conducts independent investigations and "sting" operations not connected to law enforcement. The group told Rochester police that a member was posing online as a 13-year-old girl and was contacted in late January on the social media platform Kik and Instagram by a person later identified as Jerde.

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

The charges state that the citizen investigators were able to determine that Jerde lived in Rochester and that the recorded conversations continued until March 7, when a member of "Predator Poachers" confronted him about what he had been doing. It is alleged that Jerde expressed a desire to have sexual contact with children and exposed himself while engaging in lewd conduct during video chats with the person posing online as the 13-year-old.

photo by Andy Brownell TSM-Rochester

The court document says Rochester police executed a search warrant at Jerde's residence on March 26. It says he spoke with investigators and told him that he met a girl he thought was 18 years old online, but acknowledged that the person stated that she was 13 years old.

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The investigator also reported that Jerde stated that he suggested meeting the girl at a hotel and that his intent was to have sexual contact with her. Criminal complaint says he also told investigators that he was viewing child sexual abuse material on his phone.

Jerde is due back in court for another hearing in May.

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