COLUMBUS, Ind. — After pleading guilty to several charges Thursday pertaining to a revenge porn case, an 18-year-old Michigan man received a five-year prison sentence with the first year to be served in the Bartholomew County Jail and the remainder suspended to five years of probation.
Jesse J. Price, 18, Dearborn Heights, Michigan, pleaded guilty to five counts of distribution of an intimate image, Class A misdemeanors, while a Level 5 felony of child exploitation was dismissed.
Columbus Police Department received a complaint in March 2024 from a 17-year-old Columbus female who said her ex-boyfriend posted intimate images of her on a pornographic web site, including her name and home address. She learned about the posting when a stranger contacted her wanting more images. She recognized the images as ones she had previously shared with her former boyfriend, according to investigators.
The case was referred to the Bartholomew County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and was investigated in cooperation with Michigan’s ICAC Task Force. Local investigators were granted a search warrant for the pornography site involved. Although the images had been removed shortly after being posted, investigators were able to confirm Price had uploaded the images, investigators said.
Prosecutor Lindsey Holden-Kay praised the Columbus Police Department and Michigan State Police for their work on the case. She said this case was particularly disturbing because the victim was contacted by a stranger due to the crime. “ICAC investigators work with victims of crimes like this to get images removed from the Internet and hold offenders accountable,” she said.
Holden-Kay said internet crimes against children can be reported to a local law enforcement agency or to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) at 1-800-THELOST or CyberTipline.org.
