This week in People Are Terrible: Jeremy Rose, 37, has been charged with sexual exploitation of a minor after persuading a 15-year-old girl to send him more than 150 naked selfies. Rose’s brilliant tactic for getting her to do this? Creating a fake email address and posing as a producer for the adult website Brazzers.
According to courts documents, Rose, a 12-year veteran of the Tremonton, Utah, police force (why are these dudes always former cops?) allegedly approached the 15-year-old girl in 2012 by posing as a Brazzers employee named “Tom,” claiming she could make money by sending her naked selfies to the website. “Tom” allegedly also told the girl that the photos would not be posted on the website, and would instead be purchased by private individuals.
Of course, a quick Google search would have revealed that it’s illegal for legitimate adult production companies like Brazzers to employ performers under the age of 18. In fact, adult production companies are obligated under United States federal law to keep detailed performer records to ensure that they are not underage.
Yet Rose’s ruse worked: The girl later told investigators that she sent more than 150 nude photos to Rose, with Rose paying her $300 under the guise of acting as a go-between for her and “Tom.” He also bought her an iPhone 5 so she could take more pictures with the phone’s camera. When the girl tried to back out of the arrangement, Rose allegedly bullied her into sending more photos, saying that she would be in “breach of contact” and owe Brazzers thousands of dollars in debt if she failed to provide more photos.
Investigators later found more than 197 nude or partially nude images of the girl on Rose’s Dropbox account, as well as on his official police department laptop. Prosecutors also say he installed a hidden camera in her room, which allowed him to take thousands of images of the girl sleeping or coming out of the shower without her knowledge.
Although Rose was formally charged last Thursday, he’s been investigated by the Utah Attorney General’s Office since last May, after he allegedly confessed to his wife and sister that he’d persuaded the 15-year-old girl to send the naked photos to his Dropbox account (“he said this was to protect [the] minor,” an investigator wrote).
Rose is now facing 15 criminal charges, including nine counts of felony sexual exploitation of a minor, and two counts of third-degree felony voyeurism, as well as one count of misdemeanor stalking. And 39,530,505,904 informal counts of being a blight on the rear end of humanity.
H/T Salt Lake Tribune | Photo via Pro Juventute/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)