Police and prosecutors in Prince William County, Virginia have announced they will not attempt to have sexually explicit photos taken of a 17 year-old Defendant in a sexting case currently pending in that county’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court:
Police say that they will no longer be pursuing efforts to take sexually explicit photos of the Virginia teen accused in a sexting case.
Prosecutors in Prince William County had told a judge they needed nude photos of Trey Sims, 17, in an aroused state, to compare against photos he allegedly sent to his then-girlfriend, who was 15 at the time, said lawyers for Sims.
Patty Prince, a spokesperson for the city of Manassas, confirmed Thursday afternoon that the search warrant will not be executed.
“When I found out about it, we determined we would not proceed,” said Manassas City Police Chief Douglas W. Keen.
Earlier Thursday, Manassas police said it’s not their policy to “authorize invasive search procedures of suspects in cases of this nature,” and that no such procedures had been conducted in the case.
However, the teen’s aunt told News4 that police had already taken nude photographs of the teen in an unaroused condition, a claim that Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert disputed.
“The allegations lack credibility,” Ebert said.
As I noted in my post about this matter yesterday, ordinarily we would not know the name of the Defendant in this case since it involves a minor. However, yesterday afternoon, Sims, along with his family and his attorney, decided to go public with the story, no doubt as a means of putting pressure on the prosecution to drop what I can only call an outrageous demand:
This is a good resolution to this particular issue, however the charges against Sims remain, as does the possibility that he could end up being branded a sex offender for life if convicted.
