Homestead Teen Arrested For Sex Extortion Against Students
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HOMESTEAD (CBSMiami) -- A Homestead High School student has been charged with extorting two girls for sex.
Authorities say the teen used the popular text messaging app "Kik" to target the girls.
18-year old Terry Fenelon was not in class at Homestead Senior High Wednesday. Instead, Fenelon was in bond court before a judge, accused of sexual battery by coercion and making threats. All four counts are felonies. The judge denied Fenelon bond.
The arrest warrant says Fenelon threatened two students, a 15 and a 16-year-old, with harming them and their family if they didn't send him nude pictures. Then he coerced them into oral sex on campus or he'd send the pictures to family and friends. Fenelon proved he meant business by knowing where the girls lived and what they were doing.
"They feel completely humiliated, which is what he wants," State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle told CBS4. "He wants them to feel controlled and humiliated and he manipulates them into having sex with him."
Fernandez-Rundle says Fenelon's threats to the girls were all made using the Kik Messaging app. Kik has been criticized for being unsafe for minors with little to no way for parents to monitor it. It is the same app 13-year-old Nicole Lovell of Virginia used to communicate with 18-year-old man David Eisenhauer, who is now accused of murdering her.
"Rapists and sexual predators now are using the new technology to lure and to manipulate and for instance in this case, coerce sex," explained Fernandez-Rundle.
At Homestead High, word of Fenelon's arrest and the accusations spread quickly among students.
"I know him," one boy told CBS4 news reporter Donna Rapado. "I would never expect for something like this to happen. Though, he was always kind of a weird dude."
Other students were just as shocked.
"That's crazy. I mean, like, if that ever happened to me I don't know what I would do," said one surprised girl.
"I'm not allowed to use KIK because of what's going on and how kids are nowadays," explained another girl, dressed in her softball uniform. "I'm actually fine with that. It keeps me safe. I'm in school, I'm doing my work, I'm in sports."
The State Attorney believes more victims may be out there. She urged anyone with information to call the special hotline at (305) 547-3300.
