that s the way that certainly the defense has portrayed it. you have to understand the police department, they re not putting out too much information. they did say this started with a 15-year-old girl and with a 17-year-old. they re not obviously putting any names out there. but they say it happened that the boy, trey simms, was sending these text messages and they say that they told him repeatedly to stop sending them, but that s of course their portrayal of it. stacy bigley, david culver, thanks very much. thank you. this story seems extreme. it is. it s actually part of a way bigger trend. the prosecution of sexting by minors and use of, in some cases, child pornography laws to prosecute teens engaging in consensual behavior. it s happening all around us. we ll talk about it, ahead.
the case against him has not been dropped. joining me now is stacy bigley, trey s aunt and legal guardian, and reporter david culver from nbc 4 in washington. stacy, can i start with you? how did this all start? when did you first become aware of this situation? when the police showed up at my door with the first search warrant back in january. they showed up with search warrant and they said what? they said they were there to confiscate trey s ipad and his iphone because he was being charged with two felony charges of manufacturing and producing child pornography. did they then subsequently communicate to you what seems to everyone who has heard this story insane request about getting subsequent photos from him? no, that didn t come until later. whenever he had his first trial, or his first hearing, that s when that came. it got processed and once that s happened, that s when they came with a search warrant probably less than three hours after we left court. david, tell me
stacy, do you understand the origin of this? was there a complaint, an allegation your nephew was doing something was harassing the young woman that he was sending this to, or this was not a consensual exchange? no. they were dating. they were boyfriend and girlfriend. and from what i understand is the mom basically is mad that her daughter was doing things she shouldn t have been doing, and maybe this is why this all happened. because as a parent, if i have a problem with something that my child s doing or another child is doing, i will go directly to the other parent and talk to them about it first instead of calling the cops and taking it the route that she did. and david, is it your understanding that that s how the complaint initiated? that s the way that certainly the defense has portrayed it. you have to understand the
impact. the police now say they will no longer try to take sexually explicit pictures of the teen, though, and this is important, the case against him has not been dropped. joining me now is stacy bigley, trey s aunt and legal guardian, and reporter david culver from nbc 4 in washington. stacy, can i start with you? how did this all start? when did you first become aware of this situation? when the police showed up at my door with the first search warrant back in january. they showed up with search warrant and they said what? they said they were there to confiscate trey s ipad and his iphone because he was being charged with two felony charges of manufacturing and producing child pornography. did they then subsequently communicate to you what seems to everyone who has heard this story insane request about getting subsequent photos from him? no, that didn t come until later. whenever he had his first trial,
pornography. these are felonies. and so it s possible a judge in virginia, juvenile domestic relations court, could find him guilty and then could give him jail time or he could be forced to register as a sex offender and what we have to remember here is he s a minor. stacy, why do you think the prosecutor is doing this? have you talked to the prosecutor s office? i mean, what do you make of this? they don t even communicate with me. i ve spoken to them in the very actually, i ve never spoken to the prosecutors. the detective, yes, but no one else. they haven t communicated anything with us. only people i have been communicating with are trey s attorneys. no one else has said anything. so i don t know why they re coming out now saying that there are no pictures because there are. david, now, there is there are serious charges this young man faces. right. you ve been in contact with the prosecutors.