A man described as a Santa Claus impersonator is facing deeply serious allegations far removed from the holiday spirit.
Clarence V. Russell, 75, was arrested Sept. 5 on allegations that he attempted to rape a child. Police in Ticonderoga, New York, said Russell allegedly communicated online with people he believed were arranging sexual encounters involving minors, according to the Ticonderoga Police Department.
He faces charges of attempted second-degree rape involving a victim younger than 15, as well as attempted endangering the welfare of a child. It was not immediately clear whether Russell had entered a plea, and Oxygen was unable to identify an attorney representing him.
Russell was detained in a municipal parking lot in Ticonderoga after Eric Arthurs—a private citizen known on social media as “The Underagent”—allegedly posed online as a single mother offering her children, described as ages 13, 12 and 8, for sex.
Arthurs told CBS 6 News Albany that he communicated with Russell online and through text messages for about a week. Russell then allegedly drove to meet what he believed was a family outside a decoy home.
The ensuing confrontation was recorded and later shared in several videos on Arthurs’ Facebook page and the Facebook account of CBS 6 News anchor Anthony Krolikowski.
“I knew this was a set-up,” Russell told Arthurs in the videos. “I thought it was a mom.”
“Most of us fantasize about life in general,” Russell later told Arthurs. “We get to a point in our life where we don’t have much excitement, so we fantasize.”
During the encounter, Arthurs read aloud transcripts of messages he said Russell had sent to the fictional mother.
“He stated in the messages that he was going to bring lubrication for a 13-year-old,” Arthurs said. “He does have lubrication and condoms, he admitted that he brought both of them—the condoms are in his pocket, the lubrication is in his bag.”
Arthurs and a spokesperson for the Ticonderoga Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Oxygen.
A family member told NBC 5 News that Russell worked at Santa’s Workshop North Pole NY, a Christmas-themed children’s amusement park that opened in 1949.
But the park said Russell is no longer an employee.
“Clarence Russell has not been employed by Santa’s Workshop North Pole, NY, since 2025,” a company spokesperson told NBC 5 News. “He is no longer affiliated with our organization in any capacity.”
Meanwhile, according to NNY360, Russell’s daughter Kourtney told the Adirondack Daily Enterprise that she wants her father to face justice.
“None of this surprises me,” Kourtney added. “This has been public knowledge. This is what my family grew up knowing. This has been our truth. We’ve known him to be a creep.”
Kourtney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Oxygen.