Last month, we brought you the disturbing story of that Virginia teen sexting case — you know, the one that somehow escalated to the point of police wanting to photograph a boy’s erect penis so they could convict him on child pornography charges.
Now, following a trial that lasted over two hours, 17-year-old Trey Sims has been put on one-year probation, NBC Washington reports. The judge deemed Mr. Sims neither guilty nor not-guilty.
During the Friday trial, the prosecution reportedly displayed the sexts Mr. Sims allegedly exchanged with his ex-girlfriend, whose mother first reported Mr. Sims to police. Mr. Sims’s defense saved him from a guilty child pornography verdict by arguing there was no proof it was actually the teen in the photos.
As for investigators’ twisted attempts to photograph Mr. Sims’s penis, the requests were reportedly blocked by the judge.
“They’re using a statute that was designed to protect children from being exploited in a sexual manner to take a picture of this young man in a sexually explicit manner,” Mr. Sims’s legal guardian had said to the Washington Post last month. “The irony is incredible.”
The Manassas City Police reportedly addressed their arguably perverted request on Friday, stating they “explore all legal avenues of evidence collection to prepare for trial.” Uh, okay.
The terms of Mr. Sims’ one-year probation state he can’t contact the victim and her family, must complete 100 hours of community service, and can’t use social media, the Internet or send texts. If he obeys the orders, Mr. Sims’ child pornography charges could eventually be dropped, NBC reports.
“I feel good about the situation,” Mr. Sims told NBC, “but then again I feel bad, because we didn’t get what we wanted [a not-guilty verdict].”