Two Hancock County men have been charged with trying to pay off a victim to drop his charges against Alan Moran.
23-year-old Jeremy Billings of Diamondhead and 23-year-old Ian Schexnayder of Bay St. Louis are charged with bribing a witness. They were arrested Monday and taken to Hancock County jail.
The victim, a 19-year-old who signed charges against Moran for stalking, told police that two men, later identified as Billings and Schexnayder, approached him on motorcycles as he left work at Lowe's Home Improvement in Waveland.
The victim said men offered him $20,000 to drop the charges against Moran. The victim said the suspects then showed him a large amount of cash, saying it was $5,000 up front. They said he would get another $15,000 after the charges were dropped.
The victim said he told the suspects he was not interested and he was going to the police. He then left the store and went to the police department with his mother to report the incident.
He said he also notified his employers about the incident.
Moran pleaded guilty in a plea deal in February to child exploitation and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
He was given a suspended 15-year sentence and was to serve 5 years probation, delete all social media and register as a sex offender.
His arrest on the stalking charge on December 9 sent him back to court on Thursday. Judge Christopher Schmidt determined the arrest to be a violation of his probation and he was remanded back to jail.