WEST SENECA, N.Y. — An Indiana man wanted on child molestation charges was arrested in West Seneca on his way to the Erie County Fair, according to police.
The West Seneca Police Department posted on social media Wednesday, saying they made a traffic stop on Tuesday that resulted in the arrest of Michael Wayne Gordon, an Indiana fugitive who U.S. Marshals wanted on molestation charges.
According to officials, a West Seneca Police officer had been traveling on the I-90 westbound when he stopped a Ford F-350 pulling a trailer with children's carnival rides on it.
The officer had reportedly pulled over the truck for a cracked windshield and because the front passenger was visibly not wearing a seat belt.
While the officer conducted the traffic stop, police said the driver told them he was on his way to the Erie County Fairgrounds, but he could not show a driver's license. The driver tried to provide his carnival company ride operator ID tag, which had the name "James Davis" on it.
The officer directed the driver to an off-site DOT inspection station, where investigators say the man did not provide a correct date of birth. They were later able to identify the man as Michael Wayne Gordon of Kokomo, Indiana.
Gordon's identity also revealed that he had extraditable warrants in the state of Indiana for two Level 1 felony counts of child molestation and a Level 5 count of failure to register as a sex offender.
Officers took Gordon into custody and to the West Seneca Police Department, where he was given several commercial vehicle violations. He was then taken to the Erie County Holding Center, awaiting extradition back to Indiana.
The West Seneca Police Department added in its post: "Records show Gordon was convicted of child molesting in Indiana in 1994. In April 1998 he was again convicted in a child molestation case and required to register. He was convicted of failure to register as a sex offender in March 2004. According to court records, prosecutors in Miami County, Indiana filed a child molesting case against Gordon in February 2021. He failed to show up for a hearing in March 2023, leading a judge to issue an arrest warrant."
In a statement Wednesday, the Erie County Fair said that Gordon was not an employee of the fair nor was he a carnival ride operator.
West Seneca Police added that he was also not an employee of Strates Shows, the traveling fair operator, and was hired as an independent contractor SOLELY to transport the ride to the fair. Therefore, he would NOT have had contact with children at the fair.
“The Erie County Agricultural Society takes issues like this extremely seriously,” the fair’s statement read. “Safety is our top priority on the Fairgrounds. Prior to employment, we verify that Erie County Fair employees are not on the National Sex Offender Registry and require the same of our major vendors on the grounds, including the carnival ride operator for the Fair.” - Statement from the Erie County Agricultural Society
View the full social media post attached below.