‘Sexting' turns into Weld County extortion case

12-7-2009 Colorado:

Weld teen learns difficult lesson in texting

The landscape of teen relationships is changing, and as technology grows, so do cyber relationships — and cyber crime.

One Weld County teen learned the hard way this past year as a relationship she started with a California college student after meeting him through the popular MySpace social networking site led to cell phone “sexting.” That led to an exchange of sexual photos and videos and an eventual extortion charge.

On Friday, that man, Geovany Alarcon, now 20, was sentenced to four years in prison. He was accused of threatening to send sexually explicit photos and videos of her to her friends if she did not pay him $1,500. He pleaded guilty in October to sexual exploitation of a child, but he was originally charged with extortion as well.

Court and Weld district attorney officials say this case was not only disturbing by its very nature, but representative of a growing trend with today's technology feeding right into criminal behavior. The relatively new phenomenon of “sexting” — texting with sexually explicit language or photos — is growing across the country. Bullying as a result of sexting is being blamed for at least two teen suicides.

“The days of the note passed in class, check box yes or no, are gone,” said Jennifer Finch, spokeswoman for the Weld District Attorney's office. “It does start out as something flirty or impulsive and not thinking of the consequences. ... People will read this, but think, ‘My kid wouldn't do that.' But it doesn't start with kids sending sexually explicit photos. It's a gradual escalation, and you just go down that slippery slope.”

According to the Associated Press, more than a quarter of young people have been involved in sexting, but many do not know their actions could be criminal. Sending explicit photos over the Internet or through cell phones is legally considered sexual exploitation, in most cases, a felony that could bring with it a lifetime stigma as a sex offender.

“The unfortunate things is when we handle it, we're too late,” said deputy district attorney Anthony Perea, who prosecutes all the sex crimes against children cases for the Weld District Attorney's office, after Alarcon's sentencing Friday. “That's why we're trying to inform parents that they can stop it. When I'm involved, it's too late.”

Alarcon admitted to police to forcing the 17-year-old girl into making sexually explicit videos of herself and demanding $1,500 from her not to distribute the photos. He told police, however, “It was just a joke, I swear.”

Alarcon, 19 at the time, met the girl in August 2008 through MySpace. He was listed as the co-captain of the Delta Sigma Chi fraternity's soccer club through San Jose State University. They exchanged phone numbers and the texting began. As their relationship grew, he requested more photos of her body, and she sent him photos of her in various stages of undress. He then began requesting videos of her performing sexual acts, helped her set up a MySpace to display these videos to entice other men to have sex with her, and eventually he asked her to find a young girl to perform sexual acts with and videotape it.

That request was the last straw, apparently, and the girl decided to end the relationship.

“Once she wanted to terminate the relationship, he became very cruel and demanded extreme acts,” according to a police affidavit of the case. “... She had to make videos for him in order to please him. She was begging him to leave her alone and not send out the photos.”

The girl finally went to her mother, who called police — six months after that relationship began through online flirtations. Though only speaking with him once on the phone, the girl told police she had fallen in love with him and complied with his requests because of that.

Prior to his sentencing, Alarcon told Weld District Court Judge Tom Quammen that he was glad he was caught early, so he couldn't commit any more crimes.

“Not one person will ever be victimized by my hands again, may God and this court be witness,” Alarcon said Friday, after his attorney argued for a community corrections sentence. “My eyes have been ripped open. ... I understand that crimes like mine escalate to crimes that are more serious. I'm thankful I'm here now.”

Quammen said that while he was impressed that Alarcon took responsibility for his crime, the acts, nevertheless, were “very disturbing” and something he could not ignore.

“This crime is particularly serious and troublesome because so much of what happened was for your sexual gratification at the expense of a 17-year-old girl,” Quammen said. “The humiliation you caused her is devastating. Threatening her with having these videos and pictures to be broadcast was not only humiliating to her but for someone of her tender years is particularly devastating. ... This is not the typical texting phenomenon that seems to be in the culture. This went way beyond that.” ..Source.. Sharon Dunn