David Trotter of Hale County was sentenced on Tuesday to six months in prison for “interstate communications with intent to extort.”
Trotter was originally under investigation for receipt of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in June.
Trotter admitted that he took an iPhone that belonged an underage family member. He used the phone to pose as a girl asking for sexually explicit pictures of a teenage boy. Court records said Trotter wasn’t interested so much in getting the pictures as much as he wanted to use them as leverage against the teenage boy.
“Trotter admitted that wanted the pictures in order to force John Doe to stop communicating with Jane Doe,” court records said. “Trotter intended to use the threat of disclosing these pictures …”
Previous court records in Trotter’s case indicated he expressed a sexual interest in the underage girl which is why he wanted the boy to stop seeing her.
Trotter was ordered to surrender to Bureau of Prisons “at his own expense” no later than 2:00 pm on November 1. He was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.
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