Here we present the typed copy of Samuel Bassett's statement. Sam's hand-written letter can be viewed as a .PDF file by clicking here. This file has been posted here on July 06, 2011 but was written at an earlier date. (Our photocopy of this original letter unfortunately had some of the words in the right-hand margin chopped out. We have added our own interpolations of those missing words within [brackets] in our post below.) Mr. Sam Bassett wants you to know that he told the detective that there was no way he would send her those kinds of pictures and there was no way that he wanted to meet her in person.
Dear Mr. Orr:
My name is Sam Bassett and I am currently sitting in custody at the Yavapai County Jail due in part from the [sting] done by Detective Pam Edgerton for "luring a minor for sex" as well as 7 other men or more on the same sting by Dt. Edgerton. I moved back to Arizona about a year ago to better my life and [to look] for a very good job offer, also to help my parents out and spend some time with them as they are both up there in age. My mother is already in the first stages of dementia so I [wanted to] be there for my parents.
Well, in February while I was on Facebook, I got a friend request from "Brean Fox" which I saw had the same interests in Rodeo and [Horses?]. I believe her age was 18 or 19 at the time, so I added her [into my Facebook friend list]. Then she asked me to add [her] on Yahoo where she asked me if I liked younger women. And I am 35 and I told her I didn't mind younger women; that I've dated 21 years old [women]. She then started asking me for pics and movies of me or of younger women and she begged [me] to send her pics of younger women in sex acts.
I told her I wasn't comfortable sending her those kinds of pics, not knowing that it wasn't till after I sent her a pic of myself she told me that she was 13 yrs. It then occurred to me she was joking or [in Law] Enforcement, which I asked her several times if she was. Still concerned, I didn't send any more pics to her or talk to her for awhile, yet she would beg to send more. She then asked me to meet her at "Jack-In-The-Box" so we could do things in a sexual nature, where I told her no way would I meet her.
It wasn't worth my time and if she was 13 yrs. old I didn't want to go to jail. So I wouldn't meet her. She continued to beg for pics and movies and would get mad if I refused to send them. After about [a month] of chatting with her, I got fed up with her always asking to meet her or to send her [some pics]. So I deleted her and blocked her from my Facebook and Yahoo.
The next day, Detective Pam Edgerton and several other detectives showed up at my house and told me I was under arrest for luring a minor for sex. I'm now on a one-million dollar bond and have 32 counts of the same thing over and over again for chatting with a detective which I believed to be an 18 year old girl.
I ask where is the justice in this case along with along with any of these cases to take men and ruin their lives as Detective Edgerton has [done]? I would never send pics to a 13 year old girl or meet to have sex with them. I believe Detective Edgerton is very wrong, along with the Yavapai County Sheriff's department, in entrapping men to make them think they are talking with an 18 year old then changing their age to 13 to trap men ... innocent men, at that! The ones in the wrong are the detective and YCSO in a sting that has ruined my life and 7 others as well!
I am willing to meet with you to talk more as long as it doesn't interfere with the visits with my parents on Wednesday. Thank you for your time and concern in this case.
Sincerely,
Sam Bassett
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Shawn Thompson Says Her Facebook Photo Was of a 19 Year Old
Here we present the typed copy of Shawn L. Thompson's statement. Shawn's hand-written letter can be viewed as a .PDF file by clicking here. This file has been posted here on July 06, 2011 but was written at an earlier date. Mr. Shawn Thompson wants you to know that the detective who chatted with him had posted 19-year-old profiles of herself to sites like Facebook, with a photo that obviously portrayed a person older than 13. Shawn says this detective is creating crimes and criminals out of thin air! Shawn Thompson is a father of two, with prior service in the U.S. Army.
To Scott Orr,
I am Shawn Thompson and I am one of many prisoners in the Yavapai County Detention Center after having been arrested as part of an unlawful "sting operation" designed to create criminals out of innocent men. This targeting of innocent men is led by Sheriff's Detective Pam Edgerton who sets up a false identity posing as a 19 yr. old on various adult web sites. She posts her 19 yr. old's profile on social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Plenty Of Fish, Tagged, and several other sites. Most of these sites require their users to verify that they are at least 18 years old. So she states that she is 19 years old on her profile and posts a picture.
Once she makes contact with an innocent target she quickly starts making suggestive and very explicit sexual comments and switches the chat forum over to Yahoo (which has no age verification) and then announces that she is actually a 13 year old pretending to be a 19 year old. The innocent target of the sting has no way of knowing which story is true. Is she really 19 or only 13? In fact, both identities are entirely false. There is no 13 year old and there is no 19 year old. There is only the detective trying to lure innocent men into committing a crime which, without her zealous efforts, would never have occurred. She has created a crime and a criminal out of thin air!
Several of the men here attempted to meet with the unknown girl to verify her age and were arrested at the meeting site. I refused her suggestion of a meeting unless she could verify her age to my satisfaction. When she would not verify her age I told her, "I do not need the drama" and stopped the chats and deleted all of the chat files on my PC. Four days later I was arrested at my home. The sheriffs then bragged to the press about having captured another dangerous child predator.
In most of these cases the sheriffs obtain a search warrant to search the victim's PC. But in one case here of one of the eight currently waiting trial or a plea for entrapment, Chad M. requested evidence [through] his lawyer from the P.C. [held] in evidence. But [Chad] was told that his messages on "Plenty Of Fish" that justified his case were mysteriously "deleted." And not by him. The Baptist minister in Phoenix who committed suicide rather than to endure what we are presently going through here is an example of the type of "criminals" the sheriffs are currently targeting.
I have no previous criminal record and have been a law abiding citizen who proudly serves in the Army. I have a wife, two children, and an aging mother who are dependent on me for their care and support.
We desperately need your help in bringing the true facts of these immoral sting operations to the attention of the Public. The sheriffs are not capturing dangerous child predators as they proudly claim.
Shawn L. Thompson
To Scott Orr,
I am Shawn Thompson and I am one of many prisoners in the Yavapai County Detention Center after having been arrested as part of an unlawful "sting operation" designed to create criminals out of innocent men. This targeting of innocent men is led by Sheriff's Detective Pam Edgerton who sets up a false identity posing as a 19 yr. old on various adult web sites. She posts her 19 yr. old's profile on social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Plenty Of Fish, Tagged, and several other sites. Most of these sites require their users to verify that they are at least 18 years old. So she states that she is 19 years old on her profile and posts a picture.
Once she makes contact with an innocent target she quickly starts making suggestive and very explicit sexual comments and switches the chat forum over to Yahoo (which has no age verification) and then announces that she is actually a 13 year old pretending to be a 19 year old. The innocent target of the sting has no way of knowing which story is true. Is she really 19 or only 13? In fact, both identities are entirely false. There is no 13 year old and there is no 19 year old. There is only the detective trying to lure innocent men into committing a crime which, without her zealous efforts, would never have occurred. She has created a crime and a criminal out of thin air!
Several of the men here attempted to meet with the unknown girl to verify her age and were arrested at the meeting site. I refused her suggestion of a meeting unless she could verify her age to my satisfaction. When she would not verify her age I told her, "I do not need the drama" and stopped the chats and deleted all of the chat files on my PC. Four days later I was arrested at my home. The sheriffs then bragged to the press about having captured another dangerous child predator.
In most of these cases the sheriffs obtain a search warrant to search the victim's PC. But in one case here of one of the eight currently waiting trial or a plea for entrapment, Chad M. requested evidence [through] his lawyer from the P.C. [held] in evidence. But [Chad] was told that his messages on "Plenty Of Fish" that justified his case were mysteriously "deleted." And not by him. The Baptist minister in Phoenix who committed suicide rather than to endure what we are presently going through here is an example of the type of "criminals" the sheriffs are currently targeting.
I have no previous criminal record and have been a law abiding citizen who proudly serves in the Army. I have a wife, two children, and an aging mother who are dependent on me for their care and support.
We desperately need your help in bringing the true facts of these immoral sting operations to the attention of the Public. The sheriffs are not capturing dangerous child predators as they proudly claim.
Shawn L. Thompson
Monday, July 4, 2011
William Says She Placed a Personals Ad Stating She Was 18
Here we present the typed copy of William R. Adams' statement. William's hand-written letter can be viewed as a .PDF file by clicking here. This file has been posted here on July 04, 2011 but was written at an earlier date. William wants you to know that Detective Edgerton had passed herself off as an 18 year old woman on the adult dating site known as "Plenty Of Fish."
To Scott Orr visiting Jeff Bayles:
This Is My Statement.
My name is Wiliam (one of the Yavapai 6). Entrapped in an Internet Police sting carried out by the Yavapai Sheriff's Dept., and personally by a Detective Edgerton who posted a Personals Ad on the "Plenty Of Fish" adult dating site saying she was 18. I answered to the ad, believing she was 18. She wrote back, engaged me in a conversation, then said she was 13. She lured me from "Plenty Of Fish" where there is age verification onto Yahoo where there is none. She asked me to send her nude photos, even movies, which I wouldn't.
She pressed me to meet with her, luring me with directions to Gurley Street and the "Jack In The Box" restaurant (common rendezvous), as I hardly knew how to find Prescott, even.
After being taken to the Camp Verde County Jail, Detective Edgerton asked me if I wanted to write a Letter Of Apology to the victim and to her family ... to give them some comfort and closure? I wrote the apology she asked for, found out 3-1/2 months later from the Public Defender that there never was a minor or a victim in the Internet Chats.
I only know about God and mysteries and secrets that he shows and teaches me. I don't understand many things and get very confused why I am here and why I have to stay here in Hell?
But I don't think the Police should do bad things themselves trying to get someone to do something bad.
Now some background: I am a nearly 59 year old virgin, impotent from the age of 12 from a chemical burn to my genitals. Can be proved by medical exam, but no one will let the truth out and approve it cause they don't want anyone to know that I am a Victim, not a Predator. I've never touched a minor inappropriately, not ever ... this can be proved by Lie Detector ... but they don't want anyone to know the truth about me 'cause then people would begin to understand. (So they won't let me take a Lie Detector test.)
I have mental problems, have always been very socially isolated especially in the weeks leading up to my arrest, was suffering a quiet breakdown. The day, and days, leading up to my arrest was having trouble understanding things. On the day of my arrest, my car was steaming on the verge of completely overheating. I barely made it to Prescott and the Jack In The Box. I had no rational awareness of my car's obvious state. I couldn't understand or comprehend my car's state, or my own. The Police at first tried to drive my car away, then saw it was steaming and undriveable, and then had it towed. They don't want anyone to know about the car 'cause someone might begin to understand. (if they put two-and-two together.)
As I went through Booking, my personality began to de-construct and began repeating things like the booking officer and what others said. They put me in an empty cell, took away my clothes and made me wear a padded suit all day and night till the next day.
After repeated requests to make a phone call that day and night, they finally let me use the phone but it wasn't working and the call didn't go through. They finally took me to a counselor the next day and he released me to the Sex Offender jail dorms when I told him I wasn't suicidal and had threatened harm to no one.
That's when I learned to keep quiet and no matter how bad my mental condition so they wouldn't put me back in Solitary.
--William (of the Yavapai 6)
To Scott Orr visiting Jeff Bayles:
This Is My Statement.
My name is Wiliam (one of the Yavapai 6). Entrapped in an Internet Police sting carried out by the Yavapai Sheriff's Dept., and personally by a Detective Edgerton who posted a Personals Ad on the "Plenty Of Fish" adult dating site saying she was 18. I answered to the ad, believing she was 18. She wrote back, engaged me in a conversation, then said she was 13. She lured me from "Plenty Of Fish" where there is age verification onto Yahoo where there is none. She asked me to send her nude photos, even movies, which I wouldn't.
She pressed me to meet with her, luring me with directions to Gurley Street and the "Jack In The Box" restaurant (common rendezvous), as I hardly knew how to find Prescott, even.
After being taken to the Camp Verde County Jail, Detective Edgerton asked me if I wanted to write a Letter Of Apology to the victim and to her family ... to give them some comfort and closure? I wrote the apology she asked for, found out 3-1/2 months later from the Public Defender that there never was a minor or a victim in the Internet Chats.
I only know about God and mysteries and secrets that he shows and teaches me. I don't understand many things and get very confused why I am here and why I have to stay here in Hell?
But I don't think the Police should do bad things themselves trying to get someone to do something bad.
Now some background: I am a nearly 59 year old virgin, impotent from the age of 12 from a chemical burn to my genitals. Can be proved by medical exam, but no one will let the truth out and approve it cause they don't want anyone to know that I am a Victim, not a Predator. I've never touched a minor inappropriately, not ever ... this can be proved by Lie Detector ... but they don't want anyone to know the truth about me 'cause then people would begin to understand. (So they won't let me take a Lie Detector test.)
I have mental problems, have always been very socially isolated especially in the weeks leading up to my arrest, was suffering a quiet breakdown. The day, and days, leading up to my arrest was having trouble understanding things. On the day of my arrest, my car was steaming on the verge of completely overheating. I barely made it to Prescott and the Jack In The Box. I had no rational awareness of my car's obvious state. I couldn't understand or comprehend my car's state, or my own. The Police at first tried to drive my car away, then saw it was steaming and undriveable, and then had it towed. They don't want anyone to know about the car 'cause someone might begin to understand. (if they put two-and-two together.)
As I went through Booking, my personality began to de-construct and began repeating things like the booking officer and what others said. They put me in an empty cell, took away my clothes and made me wear a padded suit all day and night till the next day.
After repeated requests to make a phone call that day and night, they finally let me use the phone but it wasn't working and the call didn't go through. They finally took me to a counselor the next day and he released me to the Sex Offender jail dorms when I told him I wasn't suicidal and had threatened harm to no one.
That's when I learned to keep quiet and no matter how bad my mental condition so they wouldn't put me back in Solitary.
--William (of the Yavapai 6)
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