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Man Arrested After Allegedly Posting Pornographic Pictures of Ex
The Lincoln County Sheriff's Offices arrested Brandon Whitson, 27, for allegedly blackmailing his former girlfriend into giving him explicit pictures and them posting those pictures online. The Sheriff's Offices fears there could be other victims.
Whitson is a registered sex offender, convicted of second-degree rape of a minor.
"Recently he's been trying to coerce [his ex-girlfriend] into giving her some him some pornographic images and some underwear of hers," Capt. Richard Stephens with the Logan County Sheriff's Office said.
Whitson reportedly used the photos to threaten the woman. Stephens said Whitson would promise to post the pictures if the woman did not comply with his demands, but the photos made it online anyway.
Stephens said the photographs, along with woman's name, telephone number, and place of employment were found on a pornography sharing site based in Hungary. The site allows users to post pictures by geographical location. The woman's pictures were located in the Oklahoma section. Because the site is run in a foreign country, the Sheriff's Office has no jurisdiction to get them removed. But, posting pornographic images to any site from Oklahoma is a crime, Stephens said.
Whitson was booked on complaints of blackmail, stalking and violations of the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act.
Stephens said the Sheriff's Office thinks other girls may have been a victim of Whitson's.
"That's a great concern for myself, the sheriff's office and the prosecutors involved in this case," Stephens said.
"If he's obtaining images, even if they're willing, consensual images, we're concerned that he may be sharing those additionally on other websites, or he may be having relations with people who are underage or who are incapacitated with alcohol. Those are concerns that we've raised during these investigation and have not been able to dispel."
If you think you could be a victim or know of someone else who is, call the Logan County Sheriff's Office at 282-4100.
Posted: Friday, February 1 2013, 11:44 PM CST
IN OKLAHOMA NEWS
Thunderstorms slow Oklahoma tornado cleanup
May 23, 2013 20:18 GMT
Eds: Updates photo links. Multimedia: An interactive using graphics and photos to detail the tornado's path through Moore, Okla., and a count of the injured and dead is available at /interactives/2013/oklahoma-tornadoes/. With AP Photos. By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI Associated Press
MOORE, Okla. (AP) -- A band of thunderstorms battered the Oklahoma City area Thursday, slowing cleanup operations in the suburb where a tornado killed 24 people and destroyed thousands of homes this week.
The first of the funerals, for a 9-year-old girl killed at a Moore elementary school that took a direct hit in Monday's storm, took place Thursday morning. A family photo showed the girl, Antonia Candelaria, beaming with a big smile and wearing a white sun hat.
Early estimates indicate the tornado caused more than $2 billion of damage in Moore. Whole subdivisions in the fast-growing community of 56,000 people were destroyed.
Antonia's relatives and friends huddled under umbrellas in a downpour as they hurried into a chapel for her funeral. Mournful country music played in the chapel that was adorned with photos of the smiling girl.
Two elementary schools were hit -- one was leveled -- by Monday's tornado. Antonia was one of seven children who perished at the Plaza Towers Elementary School, a one story building with barely a wall left standing. Altogether, 10 children were killed in the storm, including two infants.
The medical examiner reported that six of the children who died at Plaza Towers suffocated after being buried under a mass of bricks, steel and other materials as the building collapsed. A seventh child who died there, 8-year-old Kyle Davis, was killed instantly by an object -- perhaps a large piece of stone or a beam -- that fell on the back of his neck.
Thursday's thunderstorms produced hail, heavy rain and high winds in the morning. A flash flood warning was also in effect. The National Weather Service said more severe storms were forecast for late afternoon and at night, and that more tornados were a possibility.
The weather was hampering cleanup and recovery efforts that had just begun to accelerate now that all of the missing have been accounted for. Residents were only formally allowed back into the damage zone on Wednesday afternoon, where they picked through enormous piles of debris.
Shayne Patteson was among them, moving around the ruins of his three-bedroom home. All that was left was the tiny area where his wife hunkered down under a mattress to protect their three children when a tornado packing winds of at least 200 mph slammed through his neighborhood.
Patteson vowed to rebuild, likely in the same place, but said next time he will have an underground storm shelter.
"That is the first thing that will be going into the design of the house, is the storm shelter and the garage," he said as he looked around piles of bricks and plywood where their home once stood.
Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis said Wednesday he would propose an ordinance in the next couple of days to require all new homes to have storm shelters.
The city already has some. After a massive tornado tore a near-identical path in 1999, city authorities provided incentives such as federal grant dollars to help residents cover the costs of safe rooms. This time, though, Lewis thinks it is necessary to compel people to include them in all new construction.
Associated Press writer Tim Talley contributed to this report.
OKLAHOMA HEADLINES
Thunderstorms slow Oklahoma tornado cleanup
Tornado watch in effect for parts of west Oklahoma
Okla. reopens emergency operations command center
Line of storms brings flash floods to OKC area
Okla. House gives final approval to tornado relief
Mourners remember girl, 9, killed in Okla. tornado
Motorists urged to avoid I-35 in Moore
International leaders in energy touring Oklahoma
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