Virginia Man Found Guilty In 'Sextortion' Of Teens On Snapchat

MIAMI, FL — A Virginia man was found guilty of federal sex crimes for the so-called "sextortion" of teenage girls in which he took over their Snapchat accounts and forced them to photograph and videotape themselves performing sexually explicit acts to get back in.

Joseph Isaiah Woodson of Ashburn is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 2 by U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez. He faces a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 117 years in a federal prison.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami told Patch more than seven girls between the ages of 12 and 15 testified during Woodson's trial in Miami before he was convicted Friday.

Most of the victims were from South Florida, but teens also were targeted in other areas of the country between October 2017 and September 2018, according to the spokesperson.

Woodson "persuaded, induced, enticed and coerced numerous minor female children across the country to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of that conduct using the camera on their cellular telephones," prosecutors said.

The verdict was announced Wednesday by U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan in Miami, Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office, Chief W. Howard Harrison of the Planation, Florida Police Department and Chief Dale Engle of the Davie, Florida Police Department.

Woodson was convicted of three counts of production of child pornography, distribution of child pornography, sending extortionate threats and conspiracy.

Prosecutors said he gained access to the Snapchat accounts of the children by pretending to be one of their friends on social media.

"Once given the passwords, (he) took over the victims’ Snapchat accounts and demanded the children send him sexually explicit videos and images of themselves using the web-based texting application 'KIK' in order to get back and regain control of their accounts," said prosecutors, adding Woodson conspired with others to "systematically extort and exploit children using the internet."

The investigation was conducted by FBI Miami’s Child Exploitation Task Force with assistance from the Davie Police Department, Plantation Police Department, Coral Springs Police Department, Fairfax City Police Department, FBI Dallas, FBI Indianapolis, FBI Operation Rescue Me, FBI Technical Analysis Unit, Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations, Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and the Army Criminal Investigation Command.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jodi L. Anton and Francis Viamontes.