Video shows prankster in character at city council meeting, not a “child groomer”

Wild things can happen at city council meetings, but did a man really admit to trying to send sexually explicit images to a 13-year-old? 

"Child groomer melts down about getting exposed by vigilantes at city council meeting," posted an X user April 8 alongside a video clip of a man speaking at a city council meeting. In the clip, the man appears to get emotional as he describes being confronted for trying to send sexually explicit messages and images to a minor. The clip had more than 3.8 million views as of April 10. 

(Screenshot of X post)

But the man in the video is a comedian, Cassady Campbell, known for "trolling" Texas city council meetings as various exaggerated personas. On April 1, he went before the Flower Mound, Texas, town council as a character he named "Jeffrey Goldstein," and described himself as "a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community," a kindergarten teacher, and "the head of Groomers Against Pedophiles." We found no evidence such a group exists.

Campbell posted the full three-minute video of his city council appearance to his YouTube page with the title, "Child Groomer Melts Down About Getting Exposed by Vigilantes at City Council Meeting." 

Featured Fact-check

Threads posts

stated on October 26, 2024 in a Threads post

Four Florida counties had “zero results” Oct. 26, and “something underhanded might be happening.”

We have fact-checked similar videos before when Campbell pretended to be an LGBTQ+ activist at a meeting in Plano, Texas.

Campbell’s YouTube page describes him as an "actor and comedian." His channel features other videos of him speaking in character at Texas city council meetings in Allen, Dallas and McKinney. Flower Mound is a town of 78,000 people northwest of Dallas.

His full comments to Flower Mound’s town council lasted three minutes. In them, he perpetuated the anti-LGBTQ myth that gay men are "groomers" and more likely to sexually abuse children. 

The clip was shared on X by Alex Rosen, founder of "Predator Poachers" a group that attempts to expose adults seeking to have inappropriate relationships with children. The original post now has a Community Note clarifying that the video is a "parody."

Community notes are submitted by certain users and become public if "enough contributors from different points of view rate that note as helpful," according to X. Similarly, a note can be taken down if enough users downvote it. 

This video features a comedian in character, not a real "child groomer." We rate this claim False.