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Former cop allegedly faked connections with porn website ‘Brazzers’ to exploit teen girl

Posted at 4:26 PM, Apr 04, 2014
and last updated 2014-04-04 18:26:38-04

TREMONTON, Utah – A former police officer is accused of sexually exploiting a minor, and a court document indicates the man went to great lengths to fool the girl into thinking she was performing modeling work for a pornographic website.

According to a statement of probable cause filed Thursday, the suspect allegedly set up multiple email and social media accounts, and at one point threatened the teen into providing illegal photos, citing a breach of contract and debt in the thousands of dollars. In addition to these threats, the teen continued to cooperate out of fear of exposure.

Jeremy Rose, the accused, was an officer with the Tremonton Police Department; the document states he “was one of the sexual abuse investigators in Box Elder County.”

According to the document, the investigation began in May of 2013 at the request of the Box Elder County Attorney’s Office based on information provided by a local citizen. Outside investigators were brought in, as Box Elder officials were familiar with the suspect and some had worked with him on prior cases.

The document stated a female minor allegedly was contacted by someone who identified themselves as working for a website called “Brazzers.” The email was a solicitation for modeling work. The minor, who was 15 at the time, mentioned the email to Rose. Rose allegedly said he knew two people at the company and “would put in a good word for her with them if she wanted to try modeling,” according to the document. The teen began sending photos in the spring of 2012.

The minor stated Rose told her to take photos of herself in various states of undress and send them to him so he could forward them on to his contacts at Brazzers. The minor sent 10-15 sets of photos, and each set contained 10-15 photos. Rose said she had been paid by Brazzers, and he gave her $300 and paid for half of her new iPhone 5, claiming the money came from Brazzers.

Officials stated there is evidence indicating Rose created fictitious contacts, email and social media accounts to misrepresent himself as Brazzers employees. The email accounts were created on Gmail, and did not have a URL associated with Brazzers—as is apparently the practice for employees with the company.

According to the document, several months later the teen wanted to make more money, and she approached Rose about sending more photos. She said Rose gave her an email address for a “Tom Warington” and “Jennica/Jenika Sorenson.”

The teen began communicating with these email accounts, and was allegedly told she could make more money by posing with less clothing, or with props like high heels and a tie. She sent about 150 photos to “Tom” and was told they would not be posted publicly, but rather sold to private individuals or companies.

When the teen emailed “Tom” because she wanted to quit, he began telling her via email she would be sued for not fulfilling “her contractual obligation,” the document stated. She stated she was a teen and could not be in such a contract.

A follow-up email from “Tom” stated “Tom” had lost money based on the teen quitting, and that she could work off the resulting debt of $5,650 by sending more photos. The teen feared “Tom” would make the photos she already sent public to expose her to those she knew.

The document states investigators also found emails between “Mike Keeze” and “Tom” discussing the teen’s age and “Mike” indicated in the email he contacted IT to “activate the ‘Trojan Horse’ in any email correspondence we have with her.”

The victim said Rose came to her work a short time later and read the messages on her phone, specifically from her boyfriend. She said he deleted all emails and “wiped” the contents of the phone then left. The teen’s boyfriend had told her to stop what she was doing when she told him about it.

Rose later confronted the victim, the document stated. The teen had said in messages to her boyfriend she believed Rose was impersonating “Brazzers” and “Tom.” Rose told her he was not doing so, that he could be fired and that they were being sued by “Brazzers.” The teen said Rose told her he would take care of things, and she did not hear from “Tom” or “Jenika” again.

A search warrant served on Google showed emails between the minor and several accounts with names that included “Brazzers.” An email from Apple stated “Dear Jeremy Rose, You’ve entered twarrington.brazzers.com.ca.us.@gmail.com as the contact email address for your Apple ID.” The listed address was one of three email accounts that corresponded with the teen.

The document states the minor sent nude photos to the “twarrington” account above. And the investigating officer stated in the document “I believe at this time with the evidence collected that Rose was the recipient of all emails..” on the various email accounts associated with the alleged fraud. The investigator also stated he believed Google+ accounts were likewise made to corroborate the manipulations of the victim.

Investigations and a search warrant on Dropbox showed the “twarrington” account and the officer’s Gmail account shared an IP address, further evidence of fraudulent representation–according to the document. The Dropbox account contained nearly 200 photos of the minor either nude or partially nude.

The contact details listed in the emails to the teen do not match the contact information used by the “Brazzers” website.

Police served a warrant and searched Rose’s residence, seizing several items. During the interview conducted during the search in June of 2013, Rose told investigators they would “get it figured out, straightened out.”

According to the document, when investigators asked Rose about the teen’s conversation with her boyfriend and Rose being behind the alleged ruse, he told them the teen talked to him about the modeling and photos and he had told her not to do those things.

According to the document he said, “I told her it was a bad idea and I told her not to, not to even dick around with it and I will leave it at that. I’m going to leave it at that.”

In June of 2013, a bag was found containing five cell phones, a thermal imaging camera and a fold-up survival shovel. Some of the phones were ones used by the minor to send photos to “Tom” and Rose.

The document states Rose’s wife told investigators in June of 2013 that Rose had confessed to her and other family members he had been manipulating a minor into sending photos to a fake company, and he had told them this was to “protect” the minor.

Further searches turned up thousands of images of the minor that “appear to have been surreptitiously taken of her while she was returning to her bedroom from having a shower or bath.” The photos were found on a cell phone seized when Rose was arrested, as well as on a laptop computer assigned to him by the Tremonton Police Department. Other images appeared to have been captured using a hidden camera.

According to a statement of probable cause, Rose faces the following charges: ten counts of sexual exploitation of a minor as a second-degree felony, two counts of voyeurism as third-degree felonies, one count of obstruction of justice as a third-degree felony, one count of communications fraud as a second-degree felony, one count of dealing in material harmful to a minor as a third-degree felony and one count of stalking as a class A misdemeanor.