I will admit it; I am at a loss to figure out how people could be this stupid!

Yeah, I get it: some people are simply sexually attracted to minors. But actively trying what this gentleman from the Lone Star State allegedly did, in an environment in which such people are being sought out, prosecuted, and sent to prison for it, is stupid, as in boneheadedly stupid and criminally stupid. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Texas man charged with paying 13-year-old Montgomery County girl for child porn

Mitchell Van Dusen, 31, of Magnolia, Texas, was being held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in lieu of $500,000 cash bail.

by Robert Moran | Tuesday, April 28, 2026 | 7:40 PM EDT

Mitchell Van Dusen, mugshot via Montgomery County Correctional Facility.

A 31-year-old Texas man was charged with allegedly paying a 13-year-old girl in Montgomery County to make child pornography, authorities said Tuesday.

Mitchell Van Dusen was extradited last week and was being held at the Montgomery County Correctional facility in lieu of $500,000 cash bail, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said.

No, of course the Inquirer didn’t publish the mugshot of the accused, but reporter Robert Moran included a hyperlink which led to the Montgomery County site which included his mugshot, something he has done before.

On July 17, 2025, the girl met with Whitpain Township police to describe online interactions she was having since July 4 of the previous year with an unknown man she met in a chat room on the Discord social platform, according to the affidavit of probable cause.

The girl said she had been receiving money from the man through the Venmo payment app and was exchanging sexually explicit photos and videos with the man, the affidavit said.

There’s more at the newspaper’s original. But if this had been going on for an entire year, it seems to me that there must be more to the story than we have been told. Was this girl smart enough to catch him herself, or was she conned and went to the police after her parents or perhaps a friend found out about it?

We are not told whether Mr Van Dusen is alleged to have shared the child pornography images with anyone else, or whether he was trying to actively make money off of the stuff.

But if he actually did this stuff — and he is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law — he really is as dumb as a box of rocks. He was doing this from Texas, with a girl in Pennsylvania, which means that he is subject to state charges in both Texas and Pennsylvania, as well as federal prosecution.

If he is guilty, if prosecutors have enough information and evidence to win a conviction in a trial, any lenient plea bargain arrangements need to be avoided. He ought to go to prison for many, many years.