An Atlantic City man is accused of luring an underage teen to his job at a hotel for a sexual encounter.
Joshua Melton was getting ready to start his overnight shift at the Holiday Inn Express on the Black Horse Pike when he got a call about the MrWEB video that was being livestreamed from the hotel’s parking lot.
“Are you baiting?” Melton asked Decker, who was videoing from inside his car.
“No, I’m not baiting,” he responds. “But I do want to have a conversation with you.”
Decker said it was Melton who first reached out to the “boy” on Grindr, and within 10 minutes of the conversation the person he was talking to gave his age as 15.
Melton then gave his as 43.
“So you didn’t even question the fact that he was underage,” Decker says to Melton. “Why?’
“I already have an experience already. That’s why,” Melton responds.
Although he never goes into detail about other incidents with teens, only acknowledging that he did tell “Jay” he was talking to a 16 year old, which Melton adds is the age of consent in New Jersey.
Melton tells Decker that he was adopted from the Philippines when he was 2½ or 3. When asked if he was ever abused himself, he says that he was in first grade.
Decker tells him he needs to “break the cycle,” and that his choices that brought them together was not doing that.
During the conversation, Melton goes inside the Holiday Inn to get a coat. When he comes out, he indicates his co-worker is watching the livestream.
“She says I’m not OK,” Melton told Decker.
He then talked about the “extraterrestrial things” that helped Melton connect to Decker “so I can get a better job.”
When Decker calls him a groomer, Melton tells him he has “extraterrestrial abilities” that include psychokinesis.
Before the meet-up, Decker records while he talks on the phone with Melton.
“Are you gonna get me a hotel room?” “Jay” asks.
“Is that what you’re using me for: an hotel room?” Melton asks him.
Melton also tells him that this is why he wanted to meet up elsewhere, and not while he was working.
“Don’t you understand ethics?” Melton asks the “teen.”
Melton later tells Decker he’s on probation and was supposed to meet his officer the next day.
He never says exactly why he is on probation, only indicated it was the family of a girl he was seeing who wanted to cause him trouble.
Melton insists the girl is of legal age, saying she is 18.
Decker does make Melton call his probation officer, who doesn’t answer.
Melton’s record shows three violations of domestic violence restraining orders since Nov. 30, 2021.
The most recent was Feb. 8, 2022 out of Galloway Township.
Before the meet-up, Decker alerted Egg Harbor Township police about what was happening, and told them he would be there around 11 p.m.
Police did arrive, and Melton was arrested.
He is now in the Atlantic County Justice Facility.
The Holiday Inn did not return a call seeking comment about Melton’s employment.
