Dennis RomeroCops today warned that pornographic videos of eight unidentified women have been disseminated online by a Los Angeles man charged with suspicion of distributing intimate imagery.
The Los Angeles Police Department said today that 32-year-old Sergio Ortiz has been charged by City Attorney's prosecutors with violating the revenge porn law signed in late 2013 by Gov. Jerry Brown.
However, Ortiz's arrest and prosecution is based on one alleged instance. “The investigation reveals that Ortiz uploaded additional pornographic videos and images of other women, all of whom have not been identified,” according to an LAPD statement.
“It is not known at this time whether these women consented to having these videos uploaded and made public on the internet,” the department stated.
Ortiz was charged in connection with video of a ninth woman, whose name was not released. Sexual imagery in all nine instances was uploaded to the site xvideos.com, Detective Eloy Navarro said.
“The victim did not agree to her image being uploaded onto the internet and was only made aware of the video through a co-worker,” police stated. “The victim is suffering tremendous emotional distress and humiliation at work, as well as among friends and family, after Ortiz posted the video of the two of them having sexual intercourse.”
Cops say that woman agreed to have sex with Ortiz after meeting him through an online dating site. She also “reluctantly” agreed to be videotaped during sex, but told him to delete it afterwards, investigators said. After the two parted ways, the video was uploaded to xvideos, detectives allege.
Ortiz was scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 20, according to City Attorney's spokesman Frank Mateljan. If successfully convicted he could face six months behind bars, he said. Ortiz was arrested Sept. 1 and released Sept. 7, according to sheriff's inmate records. The case is being publicized now so that possible additional victims might be tracked down, Navarro said.
The detective said the website has been “cooperative” with the investigation. “They want justice for victims as well,” he said.
The eight unidentified women might have consented to having the videos uploaded, the detective said, but cops are distributing Ortiz's mugshot so that they can come forward and tell their side of the story.
It's also possible that other sites were used by Ortiz, he said. “This is the only website that we know of for now,” he said.
Anyone who wants to come forward with information about the videos was asked to call detectives at 818-374-7713.
Sergio Ortiz; Credit: LAPD
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