A 19-year-old Florida man was arrested for extortion and harassment after he demanded his ex-girlfriend buy him new clothes or he would post nude pictures of her online. Keon Torrell Ponton Jr. faces charges of second-degree felony extortion and misdemeanor sexual harassment. The victim stated that in a fight, Ponton sent her the screenshots of the nude photos he had put on a group chat and threatened to spread them on social media.
19-year-old Florida man arrested after demanding his ex girlfriend to buy him new clothes or he would spread her nude pictures online PIC.TWITTER.COM/VCVV4GHGEC
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An arrest report points out that the female victim and Ponton had dated for some three years and broke up about eight months before he was taken into custody. The victim visited a Miami police substation to report the case. According to the report, Ponton texted the woman demanding her to buy him new clothes before sending her ‘screengrabs’ of nude photos he posted on a group chat.
The police acted swiftly. In a controlled call arranged by the authorities, the victim had a conversation with Ponton in which he made a purportedly incriminating admission. Enough details were provided here, redacted in this official document, to get the police into immediate action.
The Miami police arrested him on Wednesday during a traffic stop at Northwest 71st Street and 12th Avenue. About noon Thursday, Ponton was jailed with an $8,000 bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. The arrest brought a huge sigh of relief to the victim and her family, who know he can no longer harass her.
These acts by Ponton have brought second-degree felony extortion and misdemeanor sexual cyberharassment charges against the accused. These charges remind one of the serious trouble one might face with such malicious actions. The case drew attention to the crime committed and deeper issues relating to privacy and cyber safety in the digital age.
That is to say, the invasion of privacy by sharing intimate images without consent is very bad. The leaked picture/video might have serious emotional and psychological impacts on the one whose picture/video was leaked. The laws on revenge porn and cyber harassment differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Still, in most countries, specific laws that deal specifically with these issues have been enacted and provide legal redress to aggrieved persons.
