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Manassas police decide no pictures of teen’s genitals needed in sexting case

Posted at 1:04 AM, Jul 11, 2014
and last updated 2014-07-11 01:06:50-04

An update in the controversial Northern Virginia  sexting case CBS 6 first told you about earlier this week.

Manassas investigators won’t be taking explicit photos of a 17-year-old's genitals in an effort to prove he texted explicit images of himself repeatedly to a 15-year-old girl.

The Prince William prosecutor’s office and the Manassas police department were flooded with criticism from across the county because of published reports that they had obtained a search warrant to photograph the suspect’s erect penis to compare against the sexted images.

Today,  Manassas Police Lt. Brian Larkin said they won’t proceed with the plan and will let a search warrant authorizing the photos to expire.

Also today, Manasass  police Chief Doug Keen released a statement indicating they never planned to take the photos,  saying, quote: “It is not the policy of the Manassas City Police or the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office to authorize invasive search procedures of suspects in cases of this nature and no such procedures have been conducted in this case.”

Keen also stated the 17-year-old was initially charged in January after repeatedly sending explicit videos to the 15-year-old girl.

It’s unclear if the felony  case of manufacturing and distributing child pornography will proceed.

Read more here, on the Washington Post.