Gator-Hunting Cop Predator Fired 13 Years Later

Anthony L. Phillips was one of only three predators of the 21 busted in Flagler Beach-- the others being Samuel Harrison and Stephen Holt-- to never make air, and he also stood out among the other men for a number of reasons.

Phillips was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on September 24th, 1985. He graduated high school there in 2003 and then began attending the University of Florida at Gainesville. During the time of his arrest, he was a junior, and he expressed his desire to major in political science and join the CIA. He lived in a condominium with his girlfriend and worked at a local restaurant to support himself.

On December 9th, 2006, he began chatting with a decoy he believed to be a 14-year-old female named Kimmie. His sporadic, seven-hour chat was incredibly cautious. Using the screen name "g8rman21," a reference to his affinity for alligator hunting, he explained that he was studying for exams that night, but that, when he was done, he would drive there and they could "watch a scary movie and see if anything happens." He acknowledged that she was young and called her cute, explaining that her age didn't bother him. Phillips asked her if she was a virgin and whether she was still in middle school. He appeared to know the decoy was trying to set him up, so he refused to engage in any overt sexual chat. He told the decoy at least a dozen times that she could not tell her parents or anyone else and that he could get in trouble, demonstrating further that he knew her age and knew what he was doing was wrong.

At 9:45 at night, he made the two-hour drive to Flagler Beach. His interview with Chris Hansen was never aired or released. However, because he appeared in numerous graphics in the show seated at the bar, he obviously had some sort of extended interaction. He was arrested and taken to the police station. He remained quiet throughout most of the interview, only answering questions he was asked and never in more than a few words, so it is not likely a gem was lost with his unaired footage.

During his police interview, he acknowledged that he brought a condom with him and that he would have had sex with a fourteen-year-old girl, seemingly using the "It didn't happen yet" defense employed by Nathan Downhour. He was initially charged with the three felonies that the other men faced, but pled down to two misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child and was released with two years probation and internet restrictions, all in the same 24 hours that he initiated contact with the decoy. His probation ended at the end of 2008.

Phillips returned to Kentucky and was hired by the Breckenridge County Detention Center on September 17th, 2012. He worked there for over six years.

In November 2018, he was hired by the Breckenridge County Sheriff's Department as a deputy. Sheriff Todd Pate, who would later be sentenced to jail time for two DUIs, said that he did not want to kick Phillips while he was down and hired him because he had only misdemeanor convictions. Phillips was fired in May 2019, however, after he failed a polygraph test related to the details of his 2006 arrest. He would later appear on television to defend himself, claiming that he had recently become a born-again Christian and hinting at some sort of childhood trauma.

As of April 4th, 2021, he works as a self-employed electrical contractor in London, Kentucky. He does not have an active license. His phone number is (606)-877-6594, and you can leave a review of his services here. (I recommend using 129 2006 Street (area code 40741) as your address and December 9th as the day you booked your appointment). You can also rate his chat log (linked below) higher in sliminess.

Sources: