4 men arrested in Twin Falls sexual predator sting, including a Nampa church volunteer
TWIN FALLS — Four men were arrested over the weekend in a joint investigation between Twin Falls police and Homeland Security to catch sexual predators online.
Jeffrey Scott Davis of Rupert, Robert Allen Barney of Meridian, Aaron Evans of Twin Falls, and Solomon Peppley of Nampa were taken into custody on Saturday and arraigned on Monday after police said they attempted to meet with officers posing as underage teen girls.
Davis, 55, was charged with enticing a child through the internet after a Homeland Security investigator responded to a Craigslist ad Davis posted, according to the affidavit. Through text messages, an investigator posed as a 14-year-old girl.
Officers gave Davis an address to meet at after Davis asked the girl if he could perform a sex act on her and her friend, police said. When Davis arrived at the address, he was taken into custody.
Davis has been jailed on a $150,000 bond.
Evans, 26, was charged with enticing a child through the internet and possession of a controlled substance. Police said Evans responded to a fake profile on the social media website “Skout” and arranged to meet up with an investigator posing as a 14-year-old girl.
He also asked the girl if she smoked marijuana and told her he had some in his possession, according to court documents.
When Evans was taken into custody at the address given to him by the officer, he admitted to police that the conversations were sexual but said he only wanted to “make out” with the girl. Police found 3.9 grams of marijuana in Evans’s possession, according to an affidavit.
Evans was jailed on a $200,000 bond.
Barney, 39, was charged with enticing a child through the internet and driving under the influence after responding to an ad from a Homeland Security investigator on the website “Whisper,” according to court documents. Police said Barney had conversations about performing a sex act with an officer posing as a 13-year-old girl.
Barney was jailed on a $175,000 bond.
Peppley, who court documents said is a 23-year-old children’s pastor for a church in Nampa, was charged with enticing a child through the internet and sexual exploitation of a child after he responded to a Craigslist ad posted by investigators, according to an affidavit.
Peppley has volunteered in the midweek children’s program at Crossroads Community Church in Nampa, but was not a pastor there.
The Crossroads Community Church’s Facebook page posted a statement, saying the man was never alone with children and was not a staff member.
Police said Peppley asked an officer posing as a 13-year-old girl for nude photos through a text conversation and told the girl he would take a $200 Uber ride to meet her in Twin Falls.
He was taken into custody after going to a fake address provided by police and admitted in a police interview that he had planned to have sexual contact with the child.
Peppley was jailed on a $200,000 bond.
Preliminary hearings for all four men are scheduled for April 19.
This story was originally published April 9, 2019 at 7:52 AM.