# Whatever Happened To That Teenager That Police Wanted To Photograph His Dick? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 25, 2020, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-that-teenager-that-police-wanted-to-photograph-his-dick/848505 "2020-02-25T17:39:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-that-teenager-that-police-wanted-to-photograph-his-dick/848505/1 "2020-02-25T17:39:12Z")
Back in 2017, there was a kerfuffle involving the Manassas, Virginia police and their zeal to get a photograph of a teenager’s junk. Long story short (heh): 17-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl are in a relationship. Girl sends him a sexually-explicit photo or video. He allegedly sends a sexually explicit photo or video in response. Girl’s mom calls the cops, and now the prosecutor wants to ring up the boy on child pornography. To verify that the dick in the video belongs to the boy, cops want a picture of his dick. International outrage ensues. Questions are raised about Constitutional rights and the production of child pornography to fight child pornography. Eventually, [cops gave up on the plan to photograph the kid’s junk](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/manassas-city-teen-sexting_n_5572316). But that was the last I heard of it. Did he still get tried for child porn? Did any of the cops or prosecutors involved in this situation lose their jobs? Don’t need answer fast. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-that-teenager-that-police-wanted-to-photograph-his-dick/848505/2 "2020-02-25T18:44:05Z")
[This clears up much of it](https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/4477330/trey-sims-v-kenneth-labowitz/). > [@](#): > > After the juvenile court reduced the charges to felony possession of child pornography, the court found that the evidence was sufficient to convict Sims but did “not make a finding of guilt” and suspended imposition of sentence for one year. The court ordered Sims to comply with certain terms of probation, including performing 100 hours of community service, barring Sims from “access to social media,” and prohibiting Sims from sending “text messages.” After Sims completed the terms of his probation in August 2015, the court dismissed the charge against him. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-that-teenager-that-police-wanted-to-photograph-his-dick/848505/3 "2020-02-25T18:51:17Z")
As to the cops, it didn’t turn out so well for one of them. > [@](#): > > In 2014, David E. Abbott, a detective with the Manassas City Police Department in Virginia, investigated allegations that 17-year-old Trey Sims used his cellular telephone to send sexually explicit photographs and video recordings of himself to his 15-year-old girlfriend. During the course of the investigation, Abbott obtained a search warrant authorizing photographs of Sims’ naked body, including his erect penis. When Abbott executed the warrant, he allegedly demanded that Sims manipulate his penis to achieve an erection. Sims unsuccessfully attempted to comply with Abbott’s order. The civil action before us is based on these alleged events. > > Abbott died before the present case was filed. Sims therefore initiated this action against Kenneth Labowitz, the administrator of Abbott’s estate… He [killed himself](https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/updated-manassas-police-detective-accused-of-child-sex-crimes-shoots/article_93171a28-a35b-11e5-823d-5b32d569fb11.html) while being served for child sex crimes. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-that-teenager-that-police-wanted-to-photograph-his-dick/848505/4 "2020-02-25T22:39:02Z")
This seems goofy. Wouldn’t the kid have obtained a picture of somebody else, some celebrated porn star or somebody to substitute for a picture of himself? From what I hear, many of the pictures of people on online dating sites are not their actual picture. ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-that-teenager-that-police-wanted-to-photograph-his-dick/848505/5 "2020-02-25T23:01:55Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > This seems goofy. > > Wouldn’t the kid have obtained a picture of somebody else, some celebrated porn star or somebody to substitute for a picture of himself? > From what I hear, many of the pictures of people on online dating sites are not their actual picture. As indicated in the linked article and the OP’s description of it, the police were attempting to force Sims to submit to being photographed _by_ police. It would be pretty silly to ask Sims to provide a photo _to_ police, which is why that’s not what happened and something far more fucked up did. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-that-teenager-that-police-wanted-to-photograph-his-dick/848505/6 "2020-02-26T06:58:08Z")
> [@Cleophus](#): > > As indicated in the linked article and the OP’s description of it, the police were attempting to force Sims to submit to being photographed _by_ police. It would be pretty silly to ask Sims to provide a photo _to_ police, which is why that’s not what happened and something far more fucked up did. No, I mean the original picture, the one he sent to his girlfriend. Lots of people would have sent her a picture of a celeb porn star, boasting that it was a picture of them. (Of course, it would have been pointless. Had she reacted as he obviously hoped, then she soon would have had an opportunity to see him ‘in the flesh’, and would have noticed that this reality did not match the picture he had sent her. But realizing that requires thinking ahead more than a 15-year-old boy typically does.) I agree that the police action was messed up. ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-that-teenager-that-police-wanted-to-photograph-his-dick/848505/7 "2020-02-26T13:39:03Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > No, I mean the original picture, the one he sent to his girlfriend. Lots of people would have sent her a picture of a celeb porn star, boasting that it was a picture of them. People who send dick picks generally don’t send pictures of other people’s dicks. That’s not the point. The personal nature of the photograph is why it’s done. Plus, there’s no reason to automatically disregard the boy claiming it was his penis. That’s what the cops were overzealously trying to figure out in the first place, whether the original picture was the boy’s self-made child porn. If there’s a situation where someone is possibly making child porn of themselves it needs to be handled in an appropriate way, not just ignored as someone sending random porn they found elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-that-teenager-that-police-wanted-to-photograph-his-dick/848505/8 "2020-02-26T16:07:53Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > No, I mean the original picture, the one he sent to his girlfriend. Lots of people would have sent her a picture of a celeb porn star, boasting that it was a picture of them. > > (Of course, it would have been pointless. Had she reacted as he obviously hoped, then she soon would have had an opportunity to see him ‘in the flesh’, and would have noticed that this reality did not match the picture he had sent her. > But realizing that requires thinking ahead more than a 15-year-old boy typically does.) > > I agree that the police action was messed up. As someone who has received plenty of unsolicited dick pics, I’d say the vast majority of them are, well, underwhelming. They certainly aren’t very well done photos, and while I’m reluctant to body shame, let’s just say there isn’t anything particularly impressive about most of them, either. I don’t bother to try and confirm anything (usually I reply with something along the likes of, “Oh dude, that looks painful! Definitely go get that checked out!” 🆒 ). But since most of the pictures I get aren’t anything to brag about, I really don’t think most of them are hunting down celeb photos to pass off as their own. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-that-teenager-that-police-wanted-to-photograph-his-dick/848505/9 "2020-02-26T17:01:27Z")
Worth noting, perhaps, that photographing the penises of men accused of sex crimes seems pretty routine. For just one recent example, the police took a bunch of naked photos of Harvey Weinstein which were then showed to the jury, in an attempt to demonstrate that his genitals were fully as deformed and disgusting as an accuser said they were. But I’ve come across other examples as well, none of which have been treated as legally controversial AFAICT. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-that-teenager-that-police-wanted-to-photograph-his-dick/848505/10 "2020-02-26T18:03:00Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > Worth noting, perhaps, that photographing the penises of men … Yes, men. Adults, not 15-year-old boys. Legally, that’s a big difference. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-that-teenager-that-police-wanted-to-photograph-his-dick/848505/11 "2020-02-26T23:53:02Z")
IIRC the legal controversy wasn’t about the police taking forensic photos of his genitalia (that’s standard practice with sex crimes for victims & defendants, regardless of their ages) it was about the police trying to force him to masturbate so they could take a photo of his erect penis.