An 18-year-old Anchorage man has been charged with a felony after police say he sent hundreds of threatening text messages to a girl and posted an "intimate" video of her on social media.
Holden Braund-Nuss was arrested at his South Anchorage home Thursday and charged with harassment and coercion, police said. He was taken to the Anchorage jail. Bail was set at $5,000 cash and a third-party custodian. He also is ordered to have no contact with his alleged victim.
An investigation started in early February, when a school resource officer spoke with a despondent teenage girl at an unidentified local high school. The girl said she was upset because Braund-Nuss had posted an intimate video depicting her on a social media site and sent it to her mother, according to the Anchorage Police Department.
Police interviewed Braund-Nuss and the girl. Their cellphones were seized and APD's Cyber Crimes Unit examined the contents, discovering "hundreds of threatening and manipulative text messages from Braund-Nuss," APD said.
The texts are the basis for the felony coercion charge, due to the 18-year-old's threats to post the private video on the Internet and to send it to the girl's mother "if his demands weren't met," police said.
Anchorage police encouraged parents to talk with their children about the dangers and possible consequences of sharing inappropriate material online.
"Once you put something out there, you can't take it back," APD said.
Anchorage School District spokesperson Heidi Embley said student privacy rules prevented her from answering whether Braund-Nuss is a student in the district. The alleged incident didn't occur in an ASD school, but Embley said the district is pleased a school resource officer was able to help the girl.
"As phone apps, texting, social media and other technology become more common, we see increasing concerns about them being used in offensive or inappropriate ways. We encourage families to have conversations about sharing material electronically," Embley said.