Paraeducator at Adams Elementary Arrested for Allegedly Arranging to Meet 15-year-old Boy
Update by the edhat staff March 18, 2025
A Santa Barbara teacher was arrested for arranging to meet with a minor for the purpose of lewd acts on Monday.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office stated that at approximately 3:35 p.m., deputies responded to the 6800-block of Hollister Ave in Goleta to meet with a “reporting party who had been posing as a juvenile online and arranged to meet with the suspect with the plan of engaging in lewd acts.”
The suspect, 34-year-old Adam Escarcega, was detained on the scene without incident and booked at the Main Jail for soliciting a minor for lewd acts, a felony.
The reporting party has been identified as an online vigilante group that calls themselves “CC Unit” or “Creep Catching Unit.” This group, founded by a person who goes by “Ghost,” operates online in Southern California posing as minors in an attempt to identify child predators.
CC Unit reached out to edhat with photos and information of their latest sting against Escarcega.
“We are an organization that decoys, confronts, and exposes online child predators since 2018. Our most recent exposure took place in Goleta on Monday,” a CC Unit representative stated.
According to CC Unit, Escarcega scheduled to meet up with a 15-year-old boy, a CC Unit decoy, for sexual purposes. CC Unit representatives turned over their chats and a video confession from Escarcega to the Sheriff’s Office who then made the arrest.
In a conversation with edhat, CC Unit stated that Escarcega detailed sexually explicit desires and actions he wanted to take with the decoy, knowing that he was underage.
CC Unit also stated that Escarcega admitted on video that he worked as a teacher at Adams Elementary School in Santa Barbara.
Edhat reached out to the Santa Barbara Unified School District who confirmed Escarcega is a paraeducator at Adams Elementary and the District is aware of a video circulating on social media regarding alleged improper behavior.
“We are still learning all the facts regarding this delicate situation and assure parents, students and staff that we are cooperating fully with law enforcement as they investigate these serious allegations. This staff member will be on administrative leave while the investigations are completed by both the District and law enforcement,” said Sandra Trujillo, Executive Assistant to Superintendent Maldonado, in an email to edhat. “Santa Barbara Unified School District does not have additional details to provide at this time. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office or local law enforcement.”
Edhat has also confirmed that Escarcega was hired as a teacher by Storyteller Children’s Center in 2022. Storyteller offers early childhood education for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years, as well as support services for families at three locations throughout Santa Barbara. It is unclear how long Escarcega was employed at this center. Storyteller has not responded to our request for comment at the time of this publication.
Additionally, Escarcega reportedly worked as an Assistant Stage Manager at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) in 2022. It’s unclear if he is still affiliated with the college. SBCC has not responded to our request for comment at the time of this publication.
CC Unit states they have exposed 460 child predators that have led to hundreds of arrests and convictions. They set up online decoy profiles posing as minors on all social media platforms, dating and meetup apps, then wait for the potential predators to make first contact.
“After the conversation starts we let them know the [decoy’s] age, usually posing as minors from 13-15 years old and sometimes as young as 9 years old. The predators often talk very graphically, send graphic photos and videos, then try to meet,” said CC Unit.
The team gathers the evidence, prints out the chat logs, and confronts the suspects with their evidence at the arranged meeting time and location where the decoy is supposed to arrive.
“We record all of our interactions using GoPro‘s. Most of the time we can get a full confession out of them. Once we have enough we’ll notify law enforcement and they’ll show up and make the arrest based on the evidence. We normally operate in Southern California, but we do go to Northern California and many other states to catch these guys,” said CC Unit.
Video and live streams of their confrontations can be found on YouTube where they have over 30,000 subscribers.
The Sheriff’s Office states their investigation of Escarcega remains ongoing and they will share information as it becomes available.
Escarcega is in custody as of Tuesday afternoon with bail set at $75,000.
—— Original Press Release ——-
Santa Barbara Man Arrested for Attempting to Meet Minors
Written by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office March 17, 2025
Sheriff’s deputies arrested a Santa Barbara man for arranging to meet with a minor for the purpose of lewd acts.
At approximately 3:35 p.m., deputies responded to the 6800-block of Hollister to meet with a reporting party who had been posing as a juvenile online and arranged to meet with the suspect with the plan of engaging in lewd acts.
The suspect, 34-year-old Adam Escarcega, was detained on the scene without incident and booked at the Main Jail for soliciting a minor for lewd acts (felony) and he is being held on $75,000 bail.
This investigation remains ongoing, and the Sheriff’s Office will share information as it becomes available.