The vigilante group Perverted Justice gets paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by Dateline NBC To Catch a Predator to lure men to sting houses for the purposes of capturing them on video for television show material. NBC faces multiple lawsuits on the stings.
In this clip, television reporter Byron Harris confronts the leader of Perverted Justice, Xavier Von Erck (his actual name is Phillip John Eide), about the highly questionable tactics used by the group. He becomes very defensive and insults the award-winning, 35-year veteran investigative reporter from WFAA News 8 of Dallas, Texas.
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"Some call him a vigilante. Some call him a public servant.
Von Erck sees his group as a companion to law enforcement, and he has little patience with those who question his motives. 'I know you're old and you don't have much life left,' he said to this reporter. 'But when you walk up to me and get in my face and tell me I'm getting in your face—then we have a problem. So you just hold right here.' Von Erck then accused me of spitting in his face. 'Please keep your dribble to yourself,' he said. For a person whose stated mission is to serve the public, Xavier Von Erck obscures a lot of information about himself. He has changed his name. He can be reached only on the Internet. He failed to show up in a case against him in connection with another sting in New Mexico. His group failed to provide vital evidence [in cases]. After Von Erck failed to respond to our e-mails, we tracked him down at a law enforcement convention in Cleveland. We wanted to know how much he was paid by NBC per show. 'That really is not relevant to the prosecution, and at the end of the day, that's an issue for accountants and not for us,' he replied." -WFAA
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"It's easy to see how Perverted Justice resembles a game to Von Erck. Intentionally enigmatic himself, he demands utter transparency from predators and Perverted Justice members, like a junior-high-school kid playing D&D who always wants to be the dungeon master so he can control every aspect of the game. He guards his power closely, requiring members to give him their entire Internet history (all screen names, all pages joined) and going to war with 'stupid' people who dare to criticize Perverted Justice." -Rolling Stone (Issue 1032)