By Beth Brogan, Bangor Daily News
BRUNSWICK, Maine — The Maine Computer Crimes Task Force and local law enforcement agencies have worked frantically over the past few days to track down the person or persons responsible for a series of Facebook pages that have posted nude photos of dozens of Maine teens from all over the state.
Just as fast as police, and then Facebook, could shut the page down on Wednesday, a new version surfaced, leaving officials scrambling to track the source and talk to victims, who by Thursday were in the dozens, according to Oakland Police Detective Tracey Frost.
At 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, a female student approached Frost, the Messalonskee High School school resource officer, and told him that a threat posted on the page said she had until 3 p.m. to “plead her case” or nude photos would be posted.
By the time Frost turned off his iPad Tuesday night, the department had notified 14 other law enforcement agencies that a teen in their area had been victimized, he said.
“I know of victims in Cumberland, Oxford, Franklin, Kennebec, Waldo, Penobscot, Somerset and York counties,” Frost said Thursday. “I’ve lost count of how many [victims].”
Computer crimes
Detective David Armstrong of the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Task Force first heard about the pages after 4 p.m. Tuesday. The owner of the original page — a “community” Facebook page that allows immediate public access — at first posted photos of fully clothed teens along with “threats like, ‘You’re next’ or ‘State your case or I’m posting what I have for images,’” Armstrong said.
The posts encourage people to submit photos of former girlfriends or boyfriends. Despite pleas by some teens in the comments, the nude photos were subsequently posted, Armstrong said.
The computer crimes task force, which has taken the lead in the state’s investigation, notified Facebook to preserve all the accounts before removing the pages, Armstrong said. The unit obtained a search warrant and now awaits information Armstrong hopes will lead to the perpetrator.
“We have every one of those accounts clamped down,” he said. “That’s going to tell us everything about the individuals who went on those accounts, the logs, the chats, the pictures they posted …”
But until that information arrives, Armstrong said, “We’re in a holding pattern.”
Meanwhile, detectives in individual towns and counties are talking to victims and others who may have information about the pages. They are attempting to trace the path of the photos — some of which appear to have been sent through a Russian email account, a signal to Armstrong that a computer-savvy person may be behind the pages.
“We met with the girls and gave them resources and talked to their parents,” Detective Sgt. Martin Rinaldi of the Brunswick police said Thursday. “This is a tough time for them.”
As of Thursday morning, four victims had been identified in Freeport and Brunswick, although Rinaldi said he was notified of other potential victims Wednesday night.
Teens
The impact on the victims has been devastating, according to law enforcement officials. Each time a new page is created, new photos of the girls are posted, according to Frost.
“You’re talking about a teenage girl getting victimized three, four times,” he said. “Psychologically, this is incredibly hard. There’s no doubt they’re suffering. I was so mad last night I almost threw my iPad against the wall.”
Many of the posted photos appear to be “selfies,” Armstrong said — photos taken by the teen herself.
“[They’re] human and teens are going to experiment,” Armstrong said. “I just don’t think they realize the consequences when [they] start dealing with digital media, how much this can blow up and explode.”
Facebook response
Frost, the Oakland detective, said he notified Facebook officials by Internet and fax Tuesday, and the site was down within a few hours. He said the delay is understandable for such a huge company.
By Wednesday night, when two more sites popped up with photos of teens from Cumberland and Sagadahoc counties, Facebook had them shut down within 45 minutes, according to Frost.
But Armstrong said Facebook didn’t initially agree to take the page down, and responded to state police the photos didn’t meet the criteria required for an offensive post.
“Then they reconsidered,” he said. “They didn’t tell us why — they sent us an email saying they reconsidered, but how much damage was done in the meantime? And I suspect it wasn’t us that [got it taken down] — it was public outcry.”
Asked about a suspect, Armstrong said he suspects someone — or a group — in Maine created the pages because they’ve victimized Maine teens.
“I don’t believe the ones responsible are actually great friends with everyone — but there’s some indication people [know] them,” he said.
Facebook representatives did not respond to a phone call or email seeking comment Thursday.
Magnitude
Individual cases of “revenge porn” are sometimes investigated by the state police computer crimes task force, but Armstrong said he’s seen “nothing of this magnitude on Facebook.”
“This is a big release,” Frost said. “I’ve dealt with probably a dozen cases like this — it’s usually a one-on-one thing. I don’t think I’ve ever dealt with something this huge.”
The possession and dissemination of sexually explicit material featuring a minor is a Class C felony in Maine — bumped up to Class B if the minor is younger than 12 years old.
But revenge porn soon will become a misdemeanor crime on its own, thanks to a law sponsored by Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, and Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland. The law takes effect next month.
In a joint release Wednesday, Fredette and Russell spoke out against the “cowardly” Facebook pages.
“We live in the era of social media and unfortunately that means we live in a world where this type of behavior is taking place,” Fredette said in the release. “This is exactly the type of act that this law will make criminal in Maine. I’m glad we were able to do this together in a bipartisan way to protect against this kind of wrongful conduct.”
This story appears through a partnership with the Bangor Daily News.