Julia Marnin
The Charlotte Observer
(TNS)
A New York police trainee is facing federal charges after prosecutors said a woman was barraged for several weeks with text messages from unknown numbers that detailed threats to kidnap, rape and kill her.
Other text messages she received included photos of her face superimposed on pornographic images that were “made to appear as if she had been engaging in sexual acts,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York.
After the 31-year-old reported the concerning messages to the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office in August, authorities received a tip that Casey Medina, who was training to become an Avon Police Department officer, was searching for someone to help harass the woman online, prosecutors said. The town of Avon is about a 25-mile drive southwest from Rochester.
The person who provided the tip told authorities that Medina was communicating with them on a social media platform under the username “crcdal” and had shared the woman’s personal information, including her phone number, address, workplace and several photos, according to court documents.
This person, identified as a “cooperating witness” who worked with law enforcement, shared screenshots of their messages in which Medina discussed plans to abduct the woman and mentioned “drugging her and raping her limp body,” an affidavit filed with a criminal complaint shows.
Medina wrote that he needed help with kidnapping her and discussed wanting to use “chloroform” to “have (the) least struggle as possible,” the affidavit says.
“I need drugs for her…or we can just overpower her and throw her in a trunk,” Medina said, according to the affidavit.
Then, an undercover officer began messaging Medina, who is accused of detailing additional ways to kidnap and rape her from Aug. 20-22, the affidavit shows. Medina told the undercover officer that he needed help with the abduction because he didn’t want the woman to know he was involved, according to the affidavit.
“She knows me which is the problem. So it would be hard for me to do the actual abducting,” Medina wrote to the undercover officer, the affidavit says.
The criminal complaint charges Medina, 33, with attempted kidnapping; distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography; cyberstalking; and aiding and abetting, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Oct. 18.
Jeffrey L. Ciccone, a federal public defender appointed to represent Medina, declined McClatchy News’ request for comment Oct. 21.
The Avon Police Department didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Oct. 21.
Messages sent to undercover officer
According to the affidavit, Medina added the undercover officer to a group chat with the cooperating witness that was titled “Rape of (the woman’s name).”
When the undercover officer asked Medina how he would avoid getting caught, Medina responded: “Drugging her, blindfolds, gloves, condoms, driving her to a secluded spot, dumping her someone else,” the affidavit says.
He told the officer he was “100% serious,” according to the affidavit.
Medina wrote in the group chat that he also needed handcuffs, a blindfold, heavy drugs to “knock” the woman out and possible zip ties “just in case,” the affidavit shows.
He also discussed destroying the woman’s phone, according to the affidavit.
Police trainee found on revenge porn site
The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office discovered Medina was active on a website — using the “crcdal” username — that is known as a revenge porn platform, the affidavit says.
On the site, Medina uploaded galleries of images and had three folders about the woman, according to the affidavit.
One folder had 92 photos of the woman at her workplace and a second one had 158 photos of her “in various settings,” including multiple showing her face superimposed on images that made her look as if she was engaging in sex acts, the affidavit says.
A third folder had more photos of her “face superimposed onto various pornographic images,” according to the affidavit.
Interview with authorities
On Aug. 22, Onondaga deputies located Medina at the Rural Police Training Academy in Livingston County and arrested him on several state charges, according to prosecutors. The academy trains police recruits from western New York.
They took him to the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office, where they interviewed him, the affidavit says.
Medina told law enforcement that he had been messaging the woman from a “burner” phone, that he shared her address and photos to other people and said “it was possible to superimpose her face on pornographic images uploaded to the internet,” according to the affidavit
He said he would delete the photographs of her, the affidavit says.
The woman, according to prosecutors, had “no idea,” who was harassing and messaging her.
During the law enforcement investigation, which also involved the FBI, a search of Medina’s phone revealed he had images and videos of child pornography that he shared to others, prosecutors said.
Medina’s potential motives for targeting the woman are unclear.
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