When we last left off, the trial had started, but was cut short due to the Thanksgiving Break.
On day three (December 1, 2008), Perverted-Justice testified that they were a group whose focus was to out predators who preyed on underage children in an attempt to meet up with them for a sexual encounter. The main guy behind the operation testified that they were temporarily deputized by the Sheriff's Department before setting up their sting in Elwood City, and had been conducting stings for four years from Long Island, New York, to Long Beach, California, and had successfully gotten over 100 men arrested.
During the three-day sting that took place in the spring (and what turned out to be the final episode of To Catch A Predator), twelve men showed up to the sting house, ranging in age from 20 years old to 79 years old, had various occupations, and came from places as far away as Eastern Ohio and as far west as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The men would chat up the decoys who were posing as underage kids online and use explicit language in their chats, some even going as far as sending nude pictures and showing up at the sting house with adult gifts such as sex toys, pornographic movies, lubricant, condoms, and the like.
Once the men showed up at the house, they would be greeted by an 18-year-old female actress who posed as the 13-year-old girl for the men who were trying to solicit a female, and a 20-year-old male actor who posed as a 13-year-old boy for those who were trying to solicit a male. Once the men went into the house, they were then met by Chris Hansen, who would interrogate the men for a short time about their explicit online chat, giving the men a chance to explain their behavior.
Once that was over, Chris Hansen would tell them who he was, and the men would then be free to leave, but didn't get far, as they were arrested by the Beaver County's Sheriff's Department. Three of the men posted bail and all of them plead no contest and were awaiting sentencing.
Of the nine that did not make bail, seven plead guilty, and five of the seven started serving their sentences. The rest were awaiting sentencing. Two others had trials that were still going.
The defense attorney asked one of the PJ reps why Ratburn's case was so special. He responded that Ratburn had hit up one of the PJ decoys, and they had talked for about two weeks, with Ratburn suggesting the decoy to do very inappropriate sexual actions. The decoy had invited Ratburn over, but he was a no-show to the sting house.
The defense attorney then asked why they went to the school to interrogate Nigel Ratburn, and had the Dateline NBC crew tag along. The PJ rep stated: "We (Perverted-Justice) talked about it with Chris Hansen and the Beaver County's Sheriff's Office, and came to the conclusion that Monday would be the best chance for the interviewer, Chris Hansen, to interrogate him about his chat."
"Why not talk to him at his house then?" asked the attorney.
"We wanted to make sure that we would get him in a place where he'd talk to us." replied the PJ rep. He stated that he didn't want a repeat incident of what happened in Texas two years back when a D.A. killed himself inside his house.
"Why would you go to such lengths to stalk this man based on his conversation?" asked the defense attorney.
"The man was trying to set up a meet with a 13-year old boy, and did not show up at the house. We got in touch with the principal and the superintendent and let them know that we were coming to talk to the teacher on Monday. It was higher-profile due to the teacher's status in the community." replied the PJ rep.
After a few more back-and-forth statements, day three of the trial ended, and coming up during the week would be Jake, then Alan's testimony, then Alan's mother, then Principal Haney, then the superintendent. Only one character witness would testify on Ratburn's behalf, before Ratburn himself would take the stand, unless the man plead guilty and took whatever sentence was handed to him.