Anthony Stancl Update: Facebook Sex Scam Plea Deal
Under a plea deal reached in the Facebook sex scam, Anthony Stancl pleaded no contest to two felonies.
According to the Associated Press, Stancl, 19, agreed to the plea deal and in exchange prosecutors dismissed 10 other charges.
As previously discussed, the Wisconsin resident accused of "posing as a girl on Facebook, tricking at least 31 male classmates into sending him naked photos of themselves and then blackmailing some for sex acts."
More than half said the person with whom they communicated threatened to release the images unless they agreed to let the person's male friend perform sex acts on them.
According to court documents, Stancl was accused of a Facebook sex scam, pretending to be a girl when he contacted students through the Facebook social networking site between spring 2007 and November 2008.
The 12 charges Stancl faced carried a maximum penalty of nearly 300 years.
Stancl pleaded no contest to repeated sexual assault of the same child and third-degree sexual assault, the AP reports. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed charges that included second-degree sexual assault, child enticement and possession of child pornography.
Under the plea deal Stancl now faces up to 50 years in prison.
The district attorney said the plea deal also spares victims from having to appear in court, a key factor in his negotiations.
The investigation of the Facebook sex scam overlapped a separate case in which Stancl was accused of writing a bomb threat on a bathroom wall at the school in November 2008 and following it up with an anonymous e-mail to two teachers.
A charge of causing a bomb scare was among those dismissed as part of Stancl's plea agreement.
- Milwaukee Teen Faces 300 Years in Prison for Alleged Facebook Sex Schemes (FoxNews)
- Fears of impostors increase on Facebook (CNN)
- Sex Offenders and Sex Offenses (FindLaw)