‘Online group’ meets Lancaster man who allegedly expected teen girl

LANCASTER, Ky. (FOX 56) — A Lancaster man faces several charges after allegedly making arrangements to meet a teen girl on Saturday at a Garrard County park.

Lancaster police told FOX 56 there was never a teen girl in the first place, and the encounter was staged by an “online group” known as Ky. Predo Poachers.

“We are a private organization that has volunteers all over the state and we use online decoy accounts to pose as underage kids. We let the alleged predators message and friend request us first,” a Ky. Predo Poachers organizer told FOX 56. “They take the conversations into inappropriate territory. We just interview them and turn over the evidence to the police when we are done. We have someone watching for a signal from me to call the police as I am nearing the end of the interview, so they can arrive on scene before the alleged predator leaves.”

Officers said they were dispatched just after 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 10, to the park area behind the Five Star gas station. They met 40-year-old Jeffrey Poynter as he was sitting with a man from the group.

Court documents allege that Poynter believed he was there to meet up with a 14-year-old girl, and a representative from the group supplied police with transcripts of messages Poynter allegedly exchanged with them.

Investigators said some of the messages were “sexually centered,” and Poynter allegedly sent multiple images of his genitals.

Video obtained by FOX 56 shows a volunteer meeting with Poynter before he called Lancaster police. At the end, he’s placed in the back of a Lancaster police vehicle.

Poynter was arrested and charged with procuring or promoting the use of a minor by electronic means, promoting a minor under 16 in a sex performance (solicitation), unlawful transaction with a minor under 16 (solicitation), and possession of a controlled substance not in the proper container.

He was lodged in the Jessamine County Detention Center on a $10,000 bond, court records show.

This is the second time a man has been arrested this month in Lancaster, believing they were there to meet a teen girl.