Let’s get something straight right out of the gate: I’m not Mike Hogan.
And I’m not the person making the anonymous posts now, either—which should be obvious, considering I’ve been one of their targets. They’ve taken swings at me, mocked my public work, and dragged my name into the same nonsense they’re throwing at everyone else. You really think I’m running a fake account just to humiliate myself in public? You might want to turn up your common sense and ask yourself why I’d trash my own reputation, burn the credibility I’ve spent years building, and go out of my way to make enemies when I have made up with every enemy I have ever had pretty much.
I’ve got multiple people mad at me right now because they’re convinced, I’m the one behind all of it. My advice to those people? Be smarter. Honestly. If you know me at all, you’d know I’d have to be a complete sociopath to be behind that garbage. And while I’ve been accused of a lot of things over the years, being that kind of idiot isn’t one of them. I actually think I am a pretty good writer, these people are at middle school level.
For those blissfully unaware, “Harrison County Crime Central” is a Facebook group that popped up like a rash and has been scratching away at local reputations ever since. It was started by a fake account using the name Mike Hogan, a supposedly retired West Virginia State Trooper with a backstory as real as a three-dollar bill. The page’s main hobby seemed to be screenshotting people’s mugshots and court filings, slapping them online, and letting the public do the rest—humiliate, harass, and hurl judgment at folks who haven’t even seen the inside of a courtroom yet.
But now, just to add a fresh layer of chaos to the circus, the Mike Hogan profile appears to have been booted off Facebook—sorry, Meta—and has lost control of the group entirely. The result? An unmoderated hellscape. The group has become the Wild West of character assassination: no sheriff, no rules, just a parade of gutless posts taking aim at anyone with a name someone recognizes.
And let me be clear: I don’t think the person posting now is the same person who originally created the Mike Hogan profile. In fact, I pray to God that whoever was running that original account gets back on Facebook soon and sees what this thing has turned into—because if he still had access to the group, I guarantee he’d know exactly who’s posting this trash now. Say what you want about Hogan, but if he had admin privileges, he could shut this down in five minutes flat. The silence from that corner has been loud.
And to the person—or people—behind it now: I see exactly what you’re doing. You’re not trying to fix anything. You’re not fighting corruption. You’re just poking the bear, trying to get a reaction, desperate for attention. The tone of your posts is vile. They ooze with the worst impulses humanity has to offer—racism, sexism, homophobia, and just pure ignorant cruelty. On top of that, your spelling and grammar are so bad they should be a crime of their own.
I hope you get exactly what you deserve. I hope karma circles back around and hands you a plate piled high with the same kind of misery you’ve been dishing out to people who didn’t earn it. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I’m not kidding. What you’re doing is disturbed, cowardly, and toxic, and it speaks volumes about who you are. If your life is so empty that this is how you get your kicks—hurting strangers online—you’re already more punished than you even realize.
Here’s the kicker: the people being dragged now? Many of them aren’t even in the public eye anymore. They’ve stepped away, left office, closed their businesses, walked away from the spotlight—and yet someone out there is still obsessed enough to dig them up and tear them down. There’s no agenda. No moral crusade. No investigative journalism. Just pure, aimless malice.
It’s sick. It’s useless. It’s pathetic.
And I’ll say this with zero hesitation: I hope whoever’s behind it is exposed, sued into oblivion, publicly humiliated, and—and I mean this literally—I hope they get their ass kicked. Thoroughly. Deservedly. I don’t care if that offends anyone. There are consequences for this kind of harassment, and if this person ever gets unmasked, I doubt they’ll have many defenders.
In fact, I’ve been seriously considering launching a fund—a bounty, really. A community reward paid out only if someone comes forward with information that leads to the confirmed identity of the troll (or trolls) behind this mess. Everyone who’s been attacked could throw a few bucks into the pot. If we crack the case? The reward gets paid. If not? No one owes a dime. It’s fair, it’s clean, and I’d bet we’d have a name before the weekend.
So to anyone who’s been targeted: reach out to me directly. Let me know how much you’d be willing to contribute toward that reward. You won’t owe anything unless we actually unmask the coward responsible. Let’s work together and turn the tables.
And in the meantime, let’s do what Facebook clearly won’t: start cleaning up this trash. Report every post. Not just the ones about you—report all of them that are vile, hateful, or harassing. Report the entire group. Get your friends to do it. Make it a habit. With enough pressure, I believe even Facebook will eventually get tired of the liability and shut it down.
Now, to those still trying to rope me into this clown show—those who think I must be involved because I’ve written hard-hitting stuff in the past or used an anonymous source to expose some shady nonsense—grow up. Yes, I’ve gone anonymous before. I’ve used burner accounts a handful of times, always for a reason: to tip the scales when someone with power was abusing it, to get something out that needed to be known. Not to gossip. Not to insult people’s families. Not to take cheap shots at people who just got out of jail or left public life years ago. There’s a difference between acting as a watchdog and acting like a troll. One is journalism. The other is just cowardice with Wi-Fi.
I’ve gone legit. I’ve built The Clarksburg News and Observer into a real news source—something this county desperately needs. I put my name on the byline. I take the heat. I stand by my reporting. And I’m not going to stand by quietly while some anonymous dipshit tries to burn down everyone’s reputation just to feel powerful behind a keyboard.
So no, I’m not Mike Hogan.
And if you still think I am after reading this?
Maybe you’re not ready for grown-up conversations.
