A Montgomery County teenager pleaded guilty Tuesday to posting numerous nude photos of high school girls on a file sharing website.
Brandon Berlin, 19, of Montgomery Township, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor crime under Pennsylvania's teenage sexting law and will get two years probation.
On March 7, 2015, a teen girl told Ambler Borough Police she found a website showing numerous sexually explicit images of current or former female students at North Penn High School in Towamencin Township, many under the age of 18. More students came forward with the same allegations sparking an investigation from several neighboring police departments.
Investigators learned the website containing the photos was associated with Dropbox.com, a website that allows users to store and share digital files. Officials later determined Berlin was the one who posted the photos on Dropbox. Berlin was a student at North Penn High School at the time of the incident.
Police say they found links connected to Berlin’s Dropbox account that were sent to others to view the explicit photos. Investigators say they identified other people who received the images prior to Berlin but it was Berlin who actually compiled the photos he collected from various sources on his Dropbox account.
Police interviewed several people and executed search warrants, one of which returned results from the Dropbox account containing the explicit photos, investigators said. The registration information for the Dropbox account was that of Berlin’s, according to police. Investigators say the file containing the photos was called, “I prolly had ur pics,” which was also Berlin’s senior quote in the 2015 North Penn High School yearbook.
Berlin admitted to creating the Dropbox account, gathering the explicit photos and sending out links to the account during an interview with police.
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Officials say a juvenile petition was filed against Berlin since he sent out the photos when he was a juvenile. Berlin’s case was then transferred for criminal prosecution as an adult.
