The Chris Hansen of YouTube has been sued by one of the alleged pedophiles that he baited online and reported to the police.
Zach Sweers of Grand Rapids, Michigan, runs a channel called Anxiety War, where he dispenses vigilante justice To Catch a Predator-style by posing as an underage girl and luring predators into videotaped real-life encounters.
When Sweers turned his videos and chat logs into the police, seven men were charged with a felony for accosting a minor for immoral purposes. Now one of those men is suing him.
Zachary Snoeyink is accusing Sweers of misrepresenting him by heavily editing the video and online messages, and is suing the 23-year-old Sweers for ruining his life. Sweers lured Snoeyink into a real-life encounter by pretending to be an underage teenage girl and proposition Snoeyink for sex. See the video for yourself, which appears to be fairly self-incriminating for Snoeyink. It was shot in one uninterrupted take.
To pay his legal fees, Sweers is raising money on GoFundMe. At the time this was published, he has raised over $8,000.
Despite his success, Sweers’ vigilante streak isn’t appreciated by everyone. The Kent County prosecutor has called on Sweers to stop the “dangerous” encounters and said he will not pursue further charges against pedophiles Sweers catches.
When Sweers’ plea for legal aid was posted on Reddit, many of the site’s users were also not fans of his vigilantism.