For Immediate Release

July 8th, 2014

Warren Men Charged with Posting Nude Instagram Photos

MOUNT CLEMENS, MI — Three Warren men stand accused of posting compromising photographs of under aged females on Instagram websites.

Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith today charged Kheir Dawane Maxwell, 18, with one count of Distributing Child Sexually Abusive Material, a 7-year felony, one count of Using a Computer to Distribute Child Sexually Abusive Material, a 7-year felony, six counts of Unlawful Posting of a Message, a 2-year felony, and one count of Using a Computer to Unlawfully Post a Message, a 4-year felony.

Smith also charged Germaine Terrell Holt Jr., 17, with six counts of Unlawful Posting of a Message, a 2-year felony, and one count of Using a Computer to Unlawfully Post a Message, a 4-year felony.

Police and prosecutors allege that Maxwell and Holt obtained undressed or sexually explicit photographs of underage female Cousino High School students without their consent and posted them on an Instagram website. During the investigation, the Instagram website had been taken down by order of the Warren Police Department. Maxwell and Holt then posted the images on a new Instagram website.

In a separate investigation, Deshawn Maurice Smalls is charged with four counts of Unlawful Posting of a Message, a 2-year felony, and one count of Using a Computer to Unlawfully Post a Message, a 4-year felony. Smalls, 17, is alleged to have created an Instagram website this past April, on which he posted nude images of underaged female students from various high schools in Warren without their consent.

In these cases, most of the images appear to have been taken by the subjects themselves and given to their boyfriends. The images were then distributed by former boyfriends and, ultimately, posted on the websites.

“New crime sometimes accompanies new technology,” said Smith. “We need to impress upon our children that the images they post online or through texts have the potential to follow them eternally. If you distribute an intimate photograph of yourself, you can count the minutes until some criminal is posting it for the world to see.”

The men will be arraigned in 37th District Court, Warren.