David Kaye's Whole Life, Basically

David Kaye, caught in the second "To Catch A Predator" and the first that exposed the full identities of the predators, remains among the most notorious figures caught in the show's history.

Kaye was born on October 25th, 1950. He worked as a rabbi at Congregation Har Shalom in Potomac, Maryland, from 1985 to 2001. He briefly worked as a rabbi at Congregation Agudas Achim in San Antonio, Texas, that year before becoming a vice president of programming for Panim: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values in Rockville, Maryland. He became somewhat of a local celebrity, working with thousands of Jewish high school students on religious and political issues. He would also famously be photographed with two other figures convicted of sex offenses.

On August 7th, 2005, at 3:50 A.M., 54-year-old Kaye, using the screen name "REDBD," made contact with someone he believed to be a 13-year-old boy named Conrad. His screen name came from his nickname, "Red Beard," which he earned when he was younger and had red hair. "Conrad" was really a 26-year-old decoy in Florida named Sean O'Connor, but Kaye believed him to be a minor who was home alone and whose mother had recently died. Kaye swiftly took advantage of the situation, noting that he was "prowling for young men." He asked the boy if he masturbated or had ever had sex, sent graphic pictures of himself naked and performing oral sex on other men, instructed the boy on how to properly wipe, and asked him to come to the door naked. At noon on August 17th, he traveled to Herndon, Virginia, from his home in Rockville, Maryland, a 30-minute drive across the Potomac.

His confrontation has become infamous, as has the aftermath. When confronted by Hansen, Kaye stated, "You know I am in trouble and I know I am in trouble" as well as, "[I wasn't here for anything] good." These statements would later be used by an Alexandria judge to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. When cameras came out, Kaye lunged to grab his logs from Hansen (not realizing the evidence was saved in multiple places) before putting his hand in front of his face and leaving. Kaye went home that night and deleted his AOL account and attempted to clear the hard drive of his computer.

Kaye sent NBC hundreds of threatening phone calls and threatened to sue Chris Hansen. Kaye asked the latter for a second interview in an area hotel. Kaye arrived with a brief case, paused in the lobby, and demanded that they not use his face, his name, his job, or what he did in the story. Hansen denied these demands and Kaye left. Kaye resigned his position on October 31st, 2005, and the episode aired on November 4th. Kaye's divorce from his wife of three decades was finalized in December 2005.

On May 18th, 2006, a grand jury returned an indictment on two federal sex crimes that could have earned him a life sentence. Kaye waived his sixth amendment right to a trial by jury and opted to appeal directly to Judge James C. Cacheris. Cacheris conducted the trial on August 22nd and returned a guilty verdict on September 6th, 2006. He noted that the decoy for the phone call, a 24-year-old woman, had the same vocal range of 180-190 Hz as a 13-year-old male might be expected to have, refuting the argument of Kaye's attorney, Peter Greenspun, that the decoy with "1992" in his screen name was an adult. Kaye had attempted to use the phone call and decoy pictures to make this point, but it backfired horribly. Because Kaye told such an egregious lie under oath, his sentences for coercion and interstate commerce were 6.5 years in prison with 10 years of sex offender probation. Kaye's conviction was featured in the Fortson, Georgia episode.

At his trial, Kaye revealed he had been meeting men for sex in bathrooms and parks for nearly 30 years, joining Yahoo when it first launched to hook up online. His friend, Lisa Mandel-Trupp, was the only one who knew of this behavior, although not that he had done so with a minor.

Kaye was released in January 2012. He attempted to join the Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland. A "To Catch A Predator" viewer recognized and reported Kaye, and he would be banned from worshipping there on September 12th, 2012. The event was major news in the Jewish community.

Kaye has continued to live in Suburban Washington, D.C. He allegedly got a job as a light bulb salesman. However, most of his time has been spent failing miserably at trying to stay out of trouble. Kaye was arrested in 2013, 2018, and 2021 on probation violation, and he remains incarcerated. He illegally purchased pornography, searched for software to block his computer monitoring programs, solicited sex on Craigslist, and failed to notify his probation officer of new lines of credit and a new cell phone (it rang during a counseling session, and his probation officer told him to answer it before arresting him). He was given a probation extension in 2013, sentenced to six months in jail in 2018, and will likely face a harsh sentence this time around. His probation and RSO status reset each time, meaning he will spend the rest of his life on supervised release.

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