NATIONAL NEWS

Kidnapping and conspiracy charges are dropped against college students in ‘Catch a Predator’ fad

Apr 9, 2025, 5:31 AM | Updated: 7:12 am

A judge has dismissed conspiracy and kidnapping charges against five Massachusetts college students who were accused of plotting to lure a man to their campus through a dating app and then seizing him as part of a “Catch a Predator” trend on social media.

The Assumption University students, all teenagers, were arraigned in January and entered not guilty pleas. Since then, their lawyers had filed motions seeking to dismiss the charges, saying authorities lacked probable cause to believe they committed crimes.

Following a hearing last month, a Worcester District Court judge on Tuesday dismissed the conspiracy and kidnapping charges against Kelsy Brainard, Easton Randall, Kevin Carroll, Isabella Trudeau and Joaquin Smith. It wasn’t immediately known if charges were still pending against a sixth student, whose case was being handled in juvenile court.

“Isabella is very happy the judge applied the law correctly,” her lawyer, Robert Iacovelli, told WCVB-TV.

Police say Brainard’s Tinder account was used to lure the man to the private, Roman Catholic university in Worcester last October.

Brainard still faces a charge of witness intimidation stemming from the encounter. Carroll also still faces a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Messages seeking comment were emailed Wednesday to the Worcester County District Attorney’s office and to the university, where campus police had conducted an investigation.

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported that defense lawyers entered into the court record a video of a university police officer interrogating one of the students as part of their argument to dismiss the charges. They said the officer presented an incomplete and distorted picture of the evidence.

A report filed by campus police said a 22-year-old active-duty military service member connected with a woman on Tinder and was invited inside a basement lounge. Within minutes, “a group of people came out of nowhere and started calling him a pedophile,” accusing him of wanting sex with 17-year-old girls, according to the report.

The man told police that he broke free and was chased by at least 25 people to his car, where he was punched in the head and his car door was slammed on him before he managed to flee.

Campus surveillance video shows a large group of students, including the woman, “all with their cellphones out in what seems to be a recording of the whole episode,” the police statement said. They are seen “laughing and high fiving with each other” in what appeared to be “a deliberately staged event,” and there was no evidence to indicate the man was seeking sexual relations with girls, the police report said.

Randall had told officers they were inspired by the “catch a predator” trend, which he said “is big on TikTok.” He said their group shared ideas of what to tell the man through the Tinder app to lure him to campus, and then spread word through a dormitory chat group that a “predator” was in the building, the report said.

After the assault, Brainard reported the man to police as a sexual predator, police said, which they determined to be false.

National News

A mural adorns a wall next to the Massapequa High School, in Massapequa, N.Y., Friday, April 25, 20...

Associated Press

A town refuses to give up the school’s Native American mascot — and gets Trump’s support

MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. (AP) — As a high school hockey player, Adam Drexler wore his Massapequa Chiefs jersey with pride. But as the Chickasaw Nation member grew up and learned about his Indigenous roots, he came to see the school’s mascot — a stereotypical Native American man wearing a headdress — as problematic. Now his Long […]

29 minutes ago

The Tied Arch Bridge construction site, which will take high-speed trains over State Route 43, is s...

Associated Press

California high-speed rail leader pushes state to support private investment

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A long-delayed project promising nonstop rail service between San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours may be able to secure the private funding it desperately needs if California agrees to pay the investors back, its chief executive told The Associated Press. Ian Choudri, who was appointed CEO of the […]

30 minutes ago

FILE - People are seen on the beach and in the water in front of the Kahala Hotel & Resort in Honol...

Associated Press

Hawaii plans to increase hotel tax to help it cope with climate change

HONOLULU (AP) — In a first-of-its kind move, Hawaii lawmakers are ready to hike a tax imposed on travelers staying in hotels, vacation rentals and other short-term accommodations and earmark the new money for programs to cope with a warming planet. State leaders say they’ll use the funds for projects like replenishing sand on eroding […]

31 minutes ago

Florida Rep. Fiona McFarland, R-Sarasota, talks to her 7-month-old daughter Grace Melton as she pus...

Associated Press

Childcare in the Capitol: As more women run for office, some are bringing their kids

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — When Florida state Rep. Fiona McFarland’s infant daughter, Grace Melton, crawled for the first time, the mom of four was right next door, hard at work with her legislative policy staff in the state Capitol. Thanks to the on-site childcare available in the statehouse, McFarland didn’t miss that magical first milestone […]

32 minutes ago

A truck passes through Panhandle, Texas, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)Credit: ASSOCI...

Associated Press

Takeaways from AP’s report on how Trump’s immigration crackdown resonates in the Texas Panhandle

PANHANDLE, Texas (AP) — After his inauguration, President Donald Trump issued a series of orders ending legal pathways for immigrants to live and work in the U.S. Those orders resonate powerfully in the Texas Panhandle, where nearly half of workers in the meatpacking industry are thought to be foreign-born. Three months into the new administration, […]

34 minutes ago

Haitian immigrants Kevenson Jean, a truck driver, and wife Sherlie Jean, a fast food worker, pose f...

Associated Press

Immigrants working legally in the Texas Panhandle live in limbo under Trump’s crackdown

PANHANDLE, Texas (AP) — The truck driver is cutting his lawn on a windy afternoon, in a town so quiet you can take afternoon walks down the middle of Main Street. Kevenson Jean is leaving the next day for another long haul and wants things neat at the two-bedroom home he shares with his wife […]

38 minutes ago

Kidnapping and conspiracy charges are dropped against college students in ‘Catch a Predator’ fad