By Scott Loftis
A 38-year-old man who court documents indicate is a Eureka Springs resident is being held in the Benton County jail on a $500,000 bond and faces multiple child porn charges despite reportedly telling an investigator that he is part of an online “predator hunter” group working to aid police.
Brandon James San-Miguel was arrested by a Rogers police officer on two warrants out of California after a June 17 traffic stop and transported to the Benton County jail, according to a probable-cause affidavit written by Rogers Police Department detective Brian T. Hanna.
During an inventory of San-Miguel’s vehicle after his arrest, the officer located multiple electronic devices, the affidavit says, along with multiple credit and debit cards in other individuals’ names as well as drug paraphernalia and a semi-automatic rifle.
When the arresting officer contacted the jail regarding potential charges related to the drug paraphernalia, he was told that San-Miguel had been released, the affidavit says.
Hanna reviewed San-Miguel’s criminal history and found that he had a 2019 arrest for “alien smuggling” and a 2023 arrest on multiple charges including drug and firearms charges, according to the affidavit.
When San-Miguel went to the Rogers Police Department in an attempt to have his vehicle released, the affidavit says, Hanna had him arrested on a misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia. Hanna and Sgt. Larry Taylor then interviewed San-Miguel about the items discovered in his vehicle, according to the affidavit.
“We spoke about the electronic devices in his vehicle and Brandon explained that he is part of an online ‘predator hunter’ group,” Hanna writes in the affidavit.
San-Miguel said he set up fake accounts to receive material related to child sexual abuse, then saved the material on a device and turned it over to police, the affidavit says. San-Miguel said he had previously provided files to the San Diego Police Department according to the affidavit.
“Brandon was asked if he was still predator hunting and he replied that he was active and still an advocate,” Hanna writes.
San-Miguel consented to a search of some of the electronic devices, the affidavit says, but when Hanna said he could not promise San-Miguel that he would not go to jail if he consented to a search of the laptop computers found in the vehicle, San-Miguel asked for an attorney and investigators stopped the interview.
Hanna contacted an officer with the Orange County (Calif.) Sheriff’s Office, the affidavit says. That officer said that a search of San-Miguel’s electronic devices after he was arrested on drug-related offenses in 2023 led to the discovery of more than 60 images and videos of material related to child sexual abuse, according to the affidavit, which said there was an outstanding warrant for San-Miguel’s arrest based on that investigation.
After obtaining a search warrant for San-Miguel’s electronic devices, Hanna writes, he found several videos of child sexual abuse-related material on a cell phone and laptop.
Hanna requested that San-Miguel be held on $350,000 bond on 10 felony counts of distributing, possessing or viewing of matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child.
On Wednesday, July 3, Benton County Circuit Judge Robin Froman Green found probable cause to hold San-Miguel on a $500,000 bond and ordered him to appear in court on Aug. 12.
