An Indiana fugitive wanted for molesting a child was caught in upstate New York Tuesday towing kids’ carnival rides bound for the Erie County Fair.
Michael Wayne Gordon, 48, was pulled over in a Ford F350 towing a trailer carrying the colorful amusement rides on I-90 for a cracked windshield and a passenger not wearing a seatbelt, West Seneca Police said.
Gordon, a convicted sex offender, told the officer he was heading to the Erie County Fairgrounds but was not able to show his driver’s license. Instead, he offered cops his carnival company ride operator ID, which falsely gave his name as “James Davis.”
Police directed Gordon to drive to a Department of Transportation inspection station where he gave a fake birthday.
Officials were unable to find any records of his identity and learned the Kokomo, Indiana resident was wanted by Indiana State Police and the US Marshals for two felony counts of child molestation and for failing to register as a sex offender.
He was arrested and taken into custody at the Erie County Holding Center, cops said.
Investigators determined he was not an employee of the Erie County Fair or Strates Shows — a traveling carnival company — but was hired as an independent contractor to drive the ride to the fair.
Gordon was convicted of molesting a child in Indiana in 1994, police said. He was convicted of molesting a child again in 1998 and was ordered to register as a sex offender.
He was convicted of failure to register as a sex offender in 2004.
Prosecutors in Miami County, Indiana filed a child molesting case against Gordon in February 2021. When he failed to show up for a hearing in March 2023, a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
Gordon is now awaiting extradition back to Indiana to be tried in the latest case against him.
