Crew members on Jacob Wohl’s Predator DC report assaults during filming

Jacob and Jack are known for their political stunts, which include attempts to engineer sex scandals around high-profile political figures. Criminal charges are pending in multiple states over an alleged election fraud scheme. Employees say the pair have been responsible for a strange and dangerous environment on the set of their imitation of To catch a predator.

The third season of Predator DC, a web series that promised to catch high-profile sexual predator with sting operations around the DC metropolitan area, was discussed by three former employees of the two companies. In interviews and on social media, they describe being trapped in a Maryland apartment under horrible working conditions, subjected to sexual assault by the show's targets or physical assault by the show's creator. They claim that they were denied thousands of dollars in promised payments and harassed after complaining.

The team behind Predator DC denied the assault allegation. Ms. Spealman was fired from the show for inventing the false allegations.

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They spent a lot of my time. Emma Sirus is an actor who was hired to impersonate a 16-year-old girl. They made me go through hell.

The model of the Dateline NBC series To catch a predator was used in the show. They would pose as teenagers online and chat with adults, then invite them to meet at a "sting house" with cameras. There are laws against soliciting a minor under the age of 18 for sex in Maryland. In some cases, they were arrested by police after arriving.

Like many web series, Predator DC was a shoestring operation. Spealman said that the team hired a few employees to carry out the sting operation. Sirus is an adult performer who works as a stage name, Ian is an IT specialist and three security guards are related to the Game of thrones actor.

The show was trying to lure sex criminals. Sirus, Beattie, and Spealman all say that the third sting operation began to unfold quickly after the shorter first and second seasons. The show's director didn't reply to a request for comment

Spealman says that there was a staff of 200 people on the show.

Sirus and Beattie weren't familiar with the political operations of the two men. They were shown clips from previous sting operations to prove that the show was legit. They were told they would be doing it in a secure, professional production and that they would stay at a nearby hotel overnight.

They weren't getting what they were promised when they arrived at the sting house Everyone is going to get set up with hotel rooms and nobody is going to stay at the house. Everything changed by the time the film was done. Sirus, Spealman, and the director were expected to stay in the house all the time. Even though he accepted a lower rate of pay in a last-minute negotiation, it was too optimistic.

Spealman says that the two men didn't have enough money to fulfill their pledges. They locked the four team members up for five days. The group says they were not allowed to go outside or order food because they were afraid of being spotted by predators. They lived on the occasional meal delivery. The budget didn't cover a full time security staff. The security team left at night, leaving them vulnerable to reprisals. We were on our own if they came back.

Spealman had worked with the two men for a long time, and she was familiar with their shady stunts. She thought most of their work was more attention seeking than dangerous. She remembers that they had always been good to her, even though they didn't have the best reputation.

That began to change as the filming went on. According to Sirus and Spealman, the hunt for criminals was more important than the sting operations. They wanted to get a large fish. They wanted a member of congress. Spealman said they wanted Biden. You can't turn people into pedophiles.

The age of the show's fake teenagers was hidden until they were on their way to the house. Spealman complains to Wohl at one point that she is doing borders on entrapment.

The attempt to catch a predator in the 2000s was morally questionable. The show was criticized for compromising the normal standards of police work for the sake of drama and resulted in the suicide of a man who chatted with one of the fakes but refused to meet in person.

The hunt for big fish and drama overshadowed the crew's physical safety, according to employees. She said that the team told her to draw them in with small talk, a task she hadn't agreed to do. She was told to wear more revealing clothing, which made her even more vulnerable. They left her alone while they were in the house.

It was promised that Emma would be taken care of through everything. She didn't receive any of that.

The results were terrible. Sirus was afraid to break character while trying to fight off the men. One person groped her. The team called the police on the worst offenders, but they didn't make any changes that would have protected her.

She says they didn't do anything. They didn't pay much attention.

Spealman says there have been no similar occurrences in previous seasons. She acknowledges that the team should have kept a closer security detail on Sirus, but she doesn't know if that's because the team was better equipped to protect their actors. As soon as she opened the door she should have been protected. It should have been security with her.

Stress and irregular eating take their toll. Sirus woke up shaking and crying and her blood pressure was dangerously low. They were thinking of taking her to the hospital Jacob was pushing and pushing for more.

She was forced to take a pill that he claimed would raise her blood pressure, but made her weak and tired. pealman said that the pill was a placebo.

Spealman said she confronted Wohl about his treatment of the staff and doubts about whether they would be paid. She says he became violent, throwing a chair at her, breaking a clipboard, and tackling her onto a bed to grab an iPad. The report was confirmed to exist in Maryland's court system by the review of pictures of the report she made to police. Sirus didn't witness the attack firsthand but heard screaming and banging from the floor above her while she was in the sting house and was told about it when Spealman came downstairs crying. The man said he didn't witness any violence or hear anyone get hit, but he heard things get knocked around in the room where they fought.

Police and nearby residents were not happy with a sex crime sting operation being hosted in their area. The team says that as the shoot collapsed, the two men tried to negotiate a lower rate, but the money never came through. Copies of invoices and text messages provided by Spealman and Sirus show that Sirus charged $12,000, but there is no evidence that any of the bills were paid.

It may be hard to get any legal or financial justice at this time. Sirus talked with a creator on the platform who goes by TizzyEnt after she posted about her experience on TikTok. She tried to report her experience to the police. According to court records, a criminal case against one of the alleged "predators" is ongoing. Spealman tried to get a restraining order against Wohl but she wasn't able to because the incident happened more than 30 days before.

Spealman was fired from the show in late June, around two weeks after Sirus contacted The Verge, according to the team. According to Wohl,pealman's accusations against him are false due to the fact that there were many crew members present during the sting. Spealman did not provide video footage corroborating his account. The claim that employees hadn't been paid was not addressed in the statement.

There is no clear picture of Wohl and Burkman's finances. In Michigan and Ohio, prosecutors claim that the duo fed false information to potential voters in order to get them to vote for them. There is a trial in Ohio. Spealman thinks they don't have enough money. I don't think they will pay even if they have the money.

The Washington Post was tricked into reporting on a fake FBI raid in 2020 by two people. Sirus says that the case would raise the profile of the show but only if she talked to the media.

It's just one more point of frustration. She wishes she was telling the truth about the things they did to her. If not for that, my life would be a lot simpler.