Thomas Bodnar

Bodnar’s sexual infamy began over twenty years before his appearance on Dateline. Ed took the heaviest abuse since he was mentally impaired. After his victims came forward he was arrested and given a ten-year prison sentence.

He was again arrested in 1999 after meeting a boy online. The boy informed Bodnar that he was fifteen. He claimed that Bodnar had driven him to a hotel in Palm Springs, but he couldn't recall whether anything physical had transpired there. The boy instructed Bodnar to stop, and then left to use the restroom after feeling uneasy. At that point, police officers showed up and took Bodnar into custody. Bodnar was found guilty on a felony count of oral copulation with a minor under sixteen years of age and offender is 21 or more years of age and was sentenced to three years in state prison. Bodnar also had a previous charge for child pornography in another state.

On AOL, he used the alias "Casper420tj" and had a brief conversation with a person he thought to be a thirteen-year-old male child prostitute from St. Louis, asking him for pictures, if he was top or bottom, and whether he wanted to continue having sex.

Bodnar remained detained in the county jail while a thorough investigation was carried out. On October 20th, 2006, he was officially charged with two felonies: attempted lewd or lascivious acts with a child under fourteen years of age and harmful matter sent to seduce a child. Bodnar was found guilty of the former charge on March 9, 2009, by a jury. The court later determined that the claims regarding the earlier conviction were accurate. Bodnar was given a total of fifteen years in state prison by the court on September 11, 2009. The sentence included a five-year consecutive sentence for the prior violent felony conviction, two consecutive one-year terms for the prior two prison convictions, and an upper sentence of four years for the attempted lewd and lascivious act charge, which was doubled due to Bodnar's prior strike conviction.

On September 15, 2009, Bodnar submitted a notice of appeal. Bodnar argued against his conviction on the grounds that there was lack of evidence to support a result that he thought he was going to meet a child under the age of fourteen, that the trial court made an error by rejecting his proposal for a jury instruction on the defense of entrapment, and that the court had overstepped its bounds by admitting certain evidence pertaining to sexual activity that Bodnar had with a young boy over twenty years ago prior to the present offense. Bodnar also contested the fact that the court mandated that he serve a five-year parole term rather than a three-year term as part of his punishment.

The court's finding that Bodnar believed the child he was going to meet was under fourteen years old, as well as other supporting evidence, led the court to reach the conclusion that there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's decision. It also found that the court had not abused its discretion by allowing the evidence of prior wrongdoing to be admitted. They stated that the trial court did not mistake by omitting to educate the jury on entrapment because, in the court's opinion, there was not enough evidence of entrapment to support such a defense. They consequently upheld Bodnar's conviction on January 3, 2011.

Bodnar is one of two California-based predators to be a patient at the Coalinga State Hospital, the other being Robert Williams from the Long Beach sting.