Questions arise in La Joya schools ‘sexting' case

PALMVIEW — It seemingly began as high-tech flirting between two high school teenagers.

Jorge Suchil exchanged text messages with a 16-year-old girl the evening of March 28. The cell phone message exchange eventually turned sexual, with the 17-year-old Suchil asking the girl to send him a photo of her topless, police said.

The girl eventually agreed. She took a photo of herself topless and sent it to Suchil.

The girl later told police that Suchil demanded she send him a completely nude photo. If she didn’t, police said, Suchil told her he would pass the topless shot on to his friends’ cell phones.

The girl — whose name was withheld by police — went to Palmview High School administrators the next day, said Raul Gonzalez, the La Joya school district police chief.

Suchil was called to the assistant principal’s office, where the topless photo of the girl was found on his cell phone, police said. He gave police a written confession that he had the nude photo on his phone, according to the criminal complaint in the case.

La Joya school district police arrested Suchil on Monday on child pornography charges, as requested by one of the girl’s parents. Gonzalez said besides the photo of the girl, police found at least five other nude photos of other minors on his cell phone.

"It’s really common," Gonzalez said. "It’s one of the things we’ve been noticing, that kids have been sending messages like that to each other. We’re not going to look the other way and not do anything about it."

A BRAVE NEW WORLD

Suchil’s arrest on charges of possession of child pornography is not the La Joya school district’s first.

Commonly known as "sexting," youths exchanging explicit text messages or photos via mobile phones or the web is one of the consequences of new technology. A December 2009 Associated Press-MTV poll found that 30 percent of youths between 14 and 24 years old have exchanged explicit messages or photos with cell phones or online.

Children sexting classmates via cell phones has become increasingly common in the past three years, Gonzalez said.

"With high-tech phones, especially the ones that have cameras, those are the ones who really started getting kids into trouble," Gonzalez said.

Besides sex messages, La Joya school investigators have handled cases in which students have reached over the top of bathroom stalls to take voyeur photos of classmates or others taking nude photos in the locker room.

The youngest person arrested was 13 years old — a middle school student, Gonzalez said. Those cases typically do not go public because they solely involve juveniles.

"We’re not surprised anymore that anything happens," Gonzalez said. "But we’re kind of disappointed this was happening at the middle school level."

Unlike most other cases, Suchil faces adult charges.

Suchil’s lawyer, Oscar Longoria, described his client as a high school junior who was enrolled in advanced placement classes and extracurricular activities. Longoria said he continues to investigate the case and questions the way it was handled by school administrators, without citing specifics.

"We are going to do a thorough investigation," said Longoria, who is based in McAllen. "If he did the offense, it is very questionable in regards to the law."

SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES?

Anyone taking lewd photos of minors or sexting with them can face felony charges of improper photography or possession of child pornography.

But whether prosecutors will pursue the cases largely remains to be seen.

"It is both inappropriate and potentially illegal" for teens to participate in sexting — especially when photos are transmitted, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said at a news conference in February. However, teens shouldn’t necessarily be prosecuted for the offenses.

"That is not the goal," Abbott said Feb. 8 in Austin. "Our society is not necessarily going to be improved by putting a bunch of teens behind bars."

Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra said he would not comment specifically on the Suchil case because he has not reviewed the evidence.

But he questioned whether his office could successfully prosecute sexting cases, given the questions surrounding them.

"How do I know the age of the person who sent it?" Guerra said. "You have to show the person knowingly obtained pornography."

The issue has raised similar legal questions across the country, with teens finding themselves in similar situations as Suchil — on the wrong side of a law intended to protect children.

On Friday, a federal judge in Scranton, Pa., issued a permanent injunction barring local prosecutors from pursuing charges against several teenage girls for sexual cell phone photos, the AP reported.

That case emerged in October 2008, when school officials confiscated five cell phones and learned male students had been swapping photos of nude or seminude teenage girls.

Gonzalez said police involved in the local case are not pursuing criminal charges against the girl.

Had Suchil actually had consensual sex with the 16-year-old girl, he would have been protected by state law regarding sexual intercourse among minors.

Regarding sexting cases in general, Guerra said he believes "the person who produced the picture and sent it to somebody is guilty of a crime."

"What I would do as a parent is take their phone and never give them a phone again — and worry about more serious cases."