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A former U.S. Senate candidate from Edgewood has issued an apology for filing a false child sex trafficking report last year.
Ryan Dark White, 54, who also goes by the name of Jon McGreevey, made a false report alleging that there was child sex trafficking at the adult store where he worked.
In July 2022, White was criminally charged with making false statements to a law enforcement officer. On May 11, White admitted to lying in a letter posted on the Harford County Sheriff’s Office Twitter account.
“Upon my eventual arrest, I caused the arresting deputy Sgt. Kalambihis to be slandered,” White said in his letter. “I caused several internal affairs investigations to be conducted against Sgt. Kalambihis. I lied about his name and perpetuated a fictitious relationship online between Sgt. Kalambihis and a known sex trafficker. ... I also posted photographs of him and his wife on my Truth social account to have my follower base harass him. My biggest regret is lying about the child’s involvement on the day of the incident.”
Harford Sheriff Jeffrey R. Gahler released a video statement on the Harford County Sheriff’s Facebook page on Thursday, stating that he is disappointed that White, who was a Senate candidate last year, attempted to discredit the Harford County Sheriff’s Office and its child advocacy groups.
“His fear mongering caused wasted time and energy by our personnel whose time would have been better served protecting citizens of Harford County instead of investigating Mr. White’s lies,” said Gahler. “Because of his actions over 400 law enforcement man hours were spent investigating his made up complaint. This does not include the countless hours by our internal affairs investigators who received administrative complaints based on the false information Mr. White put out on his social media to his followers.”
The Morning Sun
On April 13, 2022, police received a report about an older adult male forcing a 12-year-old girl to perform sexual acts on male customers at the adult store in the 3000 block of Pulaski Highway in Edgewood, according to a sheriff’s office news release.
White, who went by McGreevey on his campaign website, was an employee of the store and was identified “as the source of the information.”
Detectives with the county’s Child Advocacy Center interviewed White on July 7, and conducted an investigation that found “at no time were any sex acts performed or offered by any of the individuals in the establishment as reported by White,” the release said.
White said in his apology letter that when he saw the girl and the man in the store, “I immediately recognized this as an opportunity to potentially obtain traction for my political career as I was running for US Senate. I used the opportunity to take photographs of a child and send it to my followers. I intentionally misled them to believe that child sex trafficking was taking place. ... I intentionally brought attention to a situation that simply did not occur.”
White was arrested on July 15 and released on a $5,000 bond. White was charged with false statements to a law enforcement officer, false statement of the commission of a crime and existence of a condition imminently dangerous to public health and safety. The case was closed on May 12 after being placed on the stet, or inactive docket.
White’s attorney, Paul Kramer, could not be reached for comment.
“He should be ashamed of himself for trying to use our criminal justice system to illegally gain fame and notoriety,” said Gahler. “Human trafficking and sexual abusing children are truly heinous crimes and extremely serious offenses. These false reports minimize these cases and takes resources away from investigating actual crimes, arresting actual criminals and delivering justice for actual victims.”