48-year-old claimed
to be 20 on MySpace
By Dan Herbeck
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 12/22/07 7:23 AM
In real life, police say, David W. Evans is 48, a thin, balding
cafeteria worker who spends a lot of time drinking beer, smoking
cigarettes and exploring the Internet.
On his MySpace page, he’s “Adam,”
a 20-year-old hunk whose muscular photograph has attracted the
interest of teenage girls.
But police say Evans went far
beyond merely misrepresenting himself on his MySpace page.
According to evidence presented in
federal court on Friday, he used the Internet to meet as many as 16
underage girls, and then cajoled and threatened them into sending
him nude photographs of themselves.
An ongoing investigation by
Cheektowaga Police and the FBI has linked Evans to six teenage girls
so far, and police believe 10 others may have been victimized, U.S.
Attorney Terrance P. Flynn said.
“It’s a case that really concerns
us because it illustrates the dangers of MySpace and the Internet,”
Flynn said. “In a fairly short time, this individual was able to
convince up to 16 young girls to commit some very disgusting acts.”
Evans, a Buffalo resident, was arrested on Tuesday.
So far, he is accused of coercing
one 15-year-old girl to engage in the production of child
pornography, a felony crime that could result in a mandatory 15-year
sentence. Evans could face numerous other counts of the same crime
if more girls come forward.
Some of the girls told police that
Evans threatened that if they stopped sending him lewd photos of
themselves, he “would tell their parents, post the pictures on the
Internet or post the pictures at their schools,” prosecutor Aaron J.
Mango said during a bail hearing.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J.
McCarthy ordered Evans to be held without bail until his case goes
to trial. The judge said he is concerned that Evans could present a
danger to underage girls in the community, especially those whom he
is already accused of victimizing.
Evans has no criminal record, and
he has not been charged with physically molesting or harming any of
the girls, said his attorney, John F. Humann of the federal public
defenders office.
“These are terrible allegations,
and I’m not trying to minimize them, but where are these girls’
parents when they’re going on the Internet and sending out pictures
of their private parts?” Humann asked.
Flynn credited Cheektowaga
Detectives Terence J. Griffin and Michael K. Hockwater for bringing
the case to the FBI after being contacted by a parent of one of a
15-year-old Cheektowaga girl.
According to court papers, the
girl told the detectives that in October she began conversing over
the Internet with someone she knew as “Adam” from the MySpace social
networking Web site.
Authorities said “Adam” identified
himself as 20 years old on MySpace and posted a photograph of a
muscular young man on his personal page.
“I like young dirty girls who will
do dirty things,” the man declared on his MySpace page.
Eventually, the girl told police,
“Adam” began calling her on her cell phone, demanding that she send
him “dirty” pictures of herself. She said she ultimately agreed to
send nude pictures after the caller threatened to post embarrassing
information about her on the Internet.
“[The girl] informed ‘Adam’ again
that she was only 15 years old, to which he responded, ‘Age is only
a number, baby,’ ” FBI Agent John R. Manes said in a court
statement.
When the girl received calls from
“Adam,” her phone’s caller identification system indicated that the
call was coming from David W. Evans at Evans’ phone number.
Two cell phones and a computer
were recovered from Evans’ home by Cheektowaga Police and the FBI.
According to court papers, Evans admitted to Cheektowaga detectives
last month that he knowingly asked a 15-year-old to send him “dirty”
pictures.
“I know that was wrong,” police
quoted Evans as saying.
In addition to the Cheektowaga
victim, Mango told the judge that police have spoken to two
15-year-old victims in Rochester, a 15-year-old victim in the
Rochester suburb of Victor, a 16-year-old victim in the Town of
Tonawanda and an 18- year-old victim in Lancaster.
Police are trying to reach 10
other girls they believe were victimized, the prosecutor said.
Mango said one of the Rochester
victims told detectives that Evans threatened to “come to her house
and kill her” if she cooperated with police. Humann, the defense
attorney, said he is skeptical of that claim.
Flynn said this case is the latest
of “many” disturbing abuses of the popular MySpace social Web site
that have been reported throughout the nation in the past two years.
“MySpace can be a dangerous
vehicle, and this case shows it,” Flynn said. “These girls thought
this 48-year-old guy was a muscular young man not much older than
they are.”
Flynn said he would stop short of
advising parents to stop their teenagers from participating in
MySpace.
“But I would advise parents to
monitor it closely, and to think long and hard about whether their
child has the maturity to use MySpace,” he said.
MySpace, which has more than 60
million registered users, announced plans last year to make the
network safer for younger users.
Authorities have not released
Evans’ street address. They identified him as an employee of a
private company that provides food services at Canisius College.
“We are not aware of any problems
involving him at Canisius,” Flynn said.
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