{"id":2772,"date":"2014-04-30T20:27:03","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T03:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=2772"},"modified":"2014-04-30T21:06:33","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T04:06:33","slug":"man-targeted-sextortion-case-targeted-fans-teen-music-acts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=2772","title":{"rendered":"Man in “Sextortion” Case Targeted Fans of Teen Music Acts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"u.s.DISTRICT<\/a>LOS ANGELES<\/strong> \u2013\u00a0A Ventura County man accused of using social networking websites to trick and extort more than a dozen girls and boys into sending him naked photos and videos was arrested today on federal child pornography charges, federal officials said.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Brendan Sears<\/strong>, 23, was arrested today without incident by the Ventura Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Task Force, which is made up of agents and officers with the FBI and Ventura County Sheriff’s Office<\/a>, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

Sears, who was named in a two-count criminal complaint filed Tuesday, made his initial appearance in federal court.\u00a0He is being held without bond and is scheduled to be arraigned May 20.<\/p>\n

This is Sears second sex-related arrest involving \u00a0“sextortion,” according to authorities.<\/p>\n

The Ventura County District Attorney\u2019s Office last year charged Sears for targeting a Ventura County teenage boy by claiming to be a teenage girl, encouraging the boy to send him naked images, and then insisting that they meet in a park so that he could take the boy to a non-existent girl.<\/p>\n

A federal affidavit supporting today’s arrest states that Sears approached many of his victims after finding them active in \u00a0social-networking groups\u00a0\u00a0for fans of music acts popular with young teenagers, such as Justin Bieber or One Direction.<\/p>\n

Officials said Sears, of Moorpark, set up fake profiles on Facebook, Meetme, and other social networking websites that appeared to be from teenage boys and girls.<\/p>\n

Sears allegedly used the bogus profiles to communicate with real-life teenagers, sometimes beginning online romantic relationships with the real-life teens and then encouraging them to send him sexually explicit videos and photos of themselves.<\/p>\n

On other occasions, Sears threatened to harm the real-life teens or their loved-ones unless they sent him naked images.<\/p>\n

In some cases, after receiving the images of the underage victims, Sears would distribute those images, along with the victims\u2019 names and personal information, to other members of his online social networking groups or to publicly accessible websites.<\/p>\n

In one case, Sears gained access to a victim\u2019s Facebook account and posted naked photos of her on her own profile page, where they could be seen by her friends and schoolmates.<\/p>\n

Once Sears had photos of a victim, he commonly used the threat of further harassment and distribution to extort more images.
\nThe federal criminal complaint unsealed at Sears\u2019 court appearance this afternoon charges him with two counts of producing child pornography, officials said.<\/p>\n

According to the affidavit, Sears is also the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Ventura County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Sears was arrested in Ventura County last year for extortion involving a teen. He released on bail in that case in August, but investigators recently determined that he continued to solicit and receive naked images from at least one teenager after that time, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

Investigators believe that Sears victimized several dozen teenagers \u2014 many in Southern California, and some are believed to be overseas \u2014 but authorities have not identified all of the victims, authorities stated.<\/p>\n

Sears is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.<\/p>\n

The charge of producing child pornography carries a sentence of 15 years to 30 years behind bars, federal officials said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2013\u00a0A Ventura County man accused of using social networking websites to trick and extort more than a dozen girls and boys into sending him naked photos and videos was arrested…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,16],"tags":[309,10],"class_list":["post-2772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fbi","category-home-main-slider","tag-child-pornography","tag-ventura-county"],"yoast_head":"\nMan in "Sextortion" Case Targeted Fans of Teen Music Acts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LOS ANGELES \u2013\u00a0A Ventura County man accused of using social networking websites to trick and extort more than a dozen girls and boys into sending him naked\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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