W.F. West High School
A hearing to decide whether a Chehalis teen will face charges as an adult for allegedly extorting possibly dozens of victims after tricking them into providing illicit photographs has been rescheduled to mid-January 2018.
The 16-year-old Chehalis boy, a student at W.F. West High School, has been held in Lewis County Juvenile Detention since Oct. 10 on charges of first-degree dealing in depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, first-degree possession of such images, and second-degree extortion.
The Chronicle does not name suspects charged in Lewis County Juvenile Court.
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer has filed a request to “decline” the boy to Lewis County Superior Court, where he would be charged as an adult. Meyer told The Chronicle last month that he expects his office to amend the teen’s charges to include 30 to 40 separate offenses.
That decline hearing was scheduled for this week, but was set out to mid-January at the request of the teen’s attorney, Jonathan Feste, of Tacoma.
The hearing is now scheduled for 9 a.m. Jan. 17 in Lewis County Superior Court in Judge Andrew Toynbee’s court.
Feste said he is waiting for the results of a doctor’s evaluation of his client, which is scheduled to be completed in early January.
“She believes it may be able to be done shortly after New Year’s Day,” Feste said.
Meyer did not object to the delay. He asked for the hearing to be set in mid-January to give his office time to review the evaluation as well.
Meyer estimated the hearing would take about two hours.
In June, the Chehalis School District, Chehalis Police Department and the FBI confirmed to The Chronicle that the federal agency was investigating reports that a teenage boy in at least one case posed as a female student in order to solicit illicit photos from a male student.
The FBI’s investigation discovered that the Chehalis teen allegedly made multiple social media accounts under assumed names in an effort to collect photos under false pretenses, according to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office. He then allegedly used the photos to extort them.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the investigation discovered hundreds of photos in the teen’s possession and dozens of victims, including 20 so far who have identified as the teen’s classmates at W.F. West High School.
