Thomas Bodnar's Crimes Are Worse Than You Think

I've said it once and I will say it again: Thomas John Bodnar was debatably the worst person ever caught on the show. While many laughs were had in Riverside, Bodnar's was a profile of a serial sex predator inflicting pain upon virtually everyone he came into contact with.

Bodnar was born on June 12th, 1963. In 1984, he molested three siblings (Ed and Dazarie Holcomb and a younger sibling whose name is unknown) between the ages of six and nine on dozens of occasions. Ed had a developmental disability and bore the brunt of the abuse. Bodnar worked as a mentor in a Big Brother Program in Salem, Oregon, and engaged in oral sex with the victims in the home of their single mother and in his office. He received a 10-year prison sentence in this case. In 1999, he was arrested for meeting a 15-year-old boy online, taking him to a hotel room in Palm Springs, and performing oral sex on him. He spent three years in state prison.

After his release from prison, Bodnar settled into a job as a general sales manager at Dodge/Chrysler in Palm Springs, California. On August 29th, 2003, he was busted by Perverted Justice decoy Jay Alternative and had his phone number and chat log published, although it would later be taken down because he was never charged for the incident. Going by "Casper420tj" on AOL, he had a brief chat with whom he believed to be a 13-year-old male child prostitute from St. Louis, asking him for pictures, if he was top or bottom, and if he wanted to engage in further sexual activity.

On Christmas Day, 2005, Bodnar initiated contact with PJ volunteer Gregory Brainer, who was pretending to be a 13-year-old boy named Luke (this would be the same profile used by Brainer to catch Charles Harding, among several others in the sting). Using the screen name "CasperIN909," he sent three pictures of his face, chest, and penis. He also engaged in explicit chat about taking Luke's virginity and arranged the meet for a day when the decoy's parents would allegedly be in Las Vegas. Bodnar had several phone calls with PJ volunteer Jennifer McKasson and continued to talk on the phone, arriving on January 6th, 2006.

Immediately after being confronted by Hansen, he ran from the house. He was tackled by Riverside law enforcement, who knew he posed a serious risk given his criminal history, and broke his arm and nose in addition to sustaining a black eye and several cuts on his face. He was found in possession of a camera, a vibrator, and a container of lubricant. Upon questioning, he admitted he came to meet a male but denied knowing the person's age and refused to acknowledge his past crimes.

Bodnar remained in the county jail as an extensive investigation was conducted. He was formally charged on October 20th, 2006, convicted on March 9th, 2009, and sentenced on September 11th, 2009. He received 15 years in state prison for attempted lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, which came as a result of his prior offenses. He appealed his sentence to California's Appeals Court, arguing that he did not know the boy was 14, that he was the victim of entrapment, and that his prior crimes should not have been considered. His conviction was upheld on January 3rd, 2011.

That did not stop him from abusing the legal system. He filed a lawsuit alleging that his broken arm was not treated properly, a case that would ultimately be dismissed in 2014 due to the expiration of his window to file a lawsuit related to the 2006 injury. He then alleged that, during the three years he spent in jail awaiting trial before being sent to Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, the toilet spewed sewage back onto the floor when he flushed, which violated his protection from cruel and unusual punishment. The case was settled for $25,000, but Bodnar, who worked as a paralegal in prison, distributed the text to dozens of other inmates, resulting in nearly 50 other copycat lawsuits. At least 16 were settled for a total surpassing $100,000. Bodnar had proposed a $35,000 settlement with a gag order on his case, but accepted the $25,000 settlement without a gag order, which cost the state a significant amount of money.

Thomas John Bodnar was released in May 2017 and ordered to spend the final three years of his sentence on probation.

But he was soon in trouble again. In 2020, he was arrested and ultimately convicted of possession of child pornography. He has yet to be sentenced, but he now falls under the scope of California's Three-Strikes Law, which means he faces 25 years to life in prison.

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