Cameron man faces additional felony charges following recent arrest

Already facing a felony charge of enticement of a child under the age of 15 in Clinton County, Caldwell County Prosecutor Brady Kopek added a few more last Friday. 

Following in investigation by the Cameron Police Department, as well as contributions from the Hamilton Police Department, Caldwell County Judge Jason Kanoy signed a warrant charging Cameron resident Rusty Herring, 50, with another charge of enticement of a child under the age of 15, as well as a charge of child pornography possession and invasion of privacy with a victim under the age of 18. 

As previously reported by the Cameron Citizen-Observer, Herring received the charges following a string of alleged encounters from July through August. The Cameron Police Department intervened when, according to a warrant application filed by CPD Reserve Patrolman Mark McClain, the child’s guardians discovered inappropriate text messages from Herring. McClain stated, I observed messages from Mr. Herring to [redacted], where he was asking her to play games such as Truth or Dare, Touch and Don’t Tell. He also asked her to get (a) buzz -meaning get high - during a native spiritual trip. [Redacted] responded by telling him she was uncomfortable smoking weed or playing his games, and she described the games as weird. 

The warrant application further stated the relationship between Herring, the child and her siblings deteriorated to the point he started treating them poorly while in his care.  

Herring started calling her a lemon and telling her all the other [redacted] students drink and smoke while cruising the backroads and her siblings were cool or better than her because they knew how to have fun. Hoping to improve their relationship, the child visited Herring at his Cameron home to help him with his plants, but Herring told her he wanted to play the touch game. He then allegedly ran his hands across her chest, upper inner thigh and outer thigh, McClain stated. [Redacted] said it made her uncomfortable and she wanted to leave. Herring also tried to convince her she was possessed. Telling her she did things she could not remember. 

When the child threatened to tell her legal guardian about Herring’s intentions, he allegedly responded by threatening to hurt her family, specifically her aunt and younger sister. 

[Herring] told her, if he wanted to, he could make her (aunt) disappear and that the people he knew would not hurt her, they would just go and hurt her little sister, McClain stated, he made it clear if [redacted] was going to do something, someone was going to get hurt.

Investigators also discovered video of a resident of the home using the bathroom, which Herring allegedly recorded through a window from outside the home.