A San Diego man who posed as a modeling agent to take compromising photos of women and to extort sex acts from them will spend 11 years and four months in prison, according to prosecutors.
Maverick Mendez Rosales, 24, received his sentence Wednesday after he pleaded guilty in January to felony charges of oral copulation, sexual battery and human trafficking of a minor.
Prosecutors said Rosales ran a fictitious modeling agency for years.
"He used social media and created a fake modeling company and pretended to be different people over text messages and computers. They believe that this was a much larger company, and because of that, a lot of them feel comfortable meeting Mr. Rosales," said Deputy District Attorney Martin Doyle of the victims.
Rosales solicited the women using sites such as Craigslist and Facebook, Doyle said.
He had at least three young women pose for nude photos and later threatened to release the photos on the Internet or to the women’s families if they didn’t perform sex acts or pay him money, according to prosecutors. One of the women was extorted because of her nude photos for two years.
“They were all very much traumatized by it,” said Doyle. “It’s a violent crime under the penal code, and because of that, Mr. Rosales will have to do most of the 11 years, four months before he’s released.”
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Doyle praised San Diego Police and the human trafficking task force for their work. He said the victims are satisfied with the sentence.
While none attended the sentencing, one of the women submitted a letter requesting he pay her back $2,000.
Rosales was initially charged with extortion, two counts of oral copulation by duress, one count of rape by duress and sexual battery, to which he pleaded not guilty. However, some of those charges were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea in the plea deal.
