Florida Keys

An illicit Snapchat video was shared by Keys students. It led to the arrest of 3 teens

Three Florida Keys teenage boys were arrested after a video showing two of them engaging in sexual acts with a 12-year-old girl was shared by students, police said.

A 16-year-old from Big Pine Key faces a charge of lewd and lascivious battery. He admitted having sex with the girl while another teen recorded it on a cellphone, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

The Miami Herald/FLKeysNews.com is not naming the teens, who were identified by the sheriff’s office in a press release.

The teen who police said taped the acts is a 16-year-old from Big Pine Key. He was arrested on charges of lewd and lascivious battery, obscene communication by transmitting child pornography and cruelty toward a child by promoting a performance that included a sexual act by a child.

The teen said he didn’t make the video or witness the sex acts but he knew there was a video going around school, the arrest affidavit states. However, detectives said they found nine incriminating videos saved in his Snapchat account.

A third boy, a 14-year-old from Key West, is accused of sharing the video and faces a charge of cruelty toward a child by promoting a performance that included a sexual act by a child.

The case began in April after school officials learned the video, which was made with the Snapchat app, was being shared by students and contacted the sheriff’s office.

“Detectives completed a search warrant from Snapchat to search [one teen’s phone],” said sheriff’s office spokesman Adam Linhardt. “They found the video of [a teen] having sex with the girl using that Snapchat history.”

This story was originally published September 15, 2021 at 2:10 PM.

Gwen Filosa
Miami Herald
Gwen Filosa covers Key West and the Lower Florida Keys for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald and lives in Key West. She was part of the staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that in 2005 won two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She graduated from Indiana University.
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