Teens get arrested years after ‘sexting’ | Highlands News-Sun | #childpredator | #kidsaftey | #childsaftey

Much of the case record is locked from public view to protect the name of the victim, who was a minor girl at the time the images were transmitted.

According to Highlands County prosecutors who read the facts of the case to Circuit Court Judge Angela Cowden Thursday, the exchanged images included naked photos of a young male and a young female.

Doe, who had agreed to plead guilty, was in court Thursday to be sentenced. Something unique to court observers then occurred: Prosecutors, who zealously prosecute child pornography cases, agreed to let Doe plead to two counts of possessing obscene material in exchange for one year of probation, fines and court costs.

Assistant State Attorney Courtney Lenhart explained to Cowden why she was offering a below-guidelines plea agreement: The images were of Doe and his then-girlfriend when they were still teenagers.

“She was a minor and the images were only sent to her, and he has no prior record,” Lenhart told Cowden. “The two were in a relationship.”

The judge – with Doe’s parents and siblings watching from the gallery – agreed to withhold adjudication of guilt on the two, third-degree felony charges to which Doe pled guilty – as long as he successfully completed his year probation.

Doe, who was kicked out of school pending the resolution of his case, will return to classes.

This is not the first time that cyber tips have alerted law enforcement to adults who, as minors, exchanged sex images with friends of the same age. The images remain in Google Docs and other cloud platforms forever, so images of teens can emerge years later, leading to arrests in the mid-20s or later.

A former Lake Placid High School student – now in his mid-20s – narrowly missed earning a sexual offender/predator designation last year after his lawyers argued that he was a minor when a friend texted images of a girl of the same age.