AUGUSTA — An Augusta man is en route to Colorado, where he is accused of getting a 14-year-old girl to send him nude photos of herself electronically.

Shane S. Pelletier, 22, waived extradition at a hearing in Augusta District Court last week and had left the Kennebec County Jail by Friday. He had been held since Nov. 27, accused of being a fugitive from justice on a Colorado warrant charging him with Internet sexual exploitation of a child.

On Jan. 23, District Court Judge Valerie Stanfill ordered Pelletier’s extradition to Fort Collins, Colo.

Pelletier was arrested by state and city police on a warrant, and had been held in lieu of bail, which was set at $20,000 worth of real estate and carried a condition that he “stay off computers until the case is resolved.”

According to an affidavit by Maine State Police Detective Chris Tupper, Fort Collins, Colo., Police Services began an investigation of Pelletier around July 4. Once Colorado police charged Pelletier, they asked Maine police to arrest him.

Under the Colorado Criminal Code, the felony offense of Internet sexual exploitation of a child occurs when someone “knowingly importunes, invites, or entices through communication via a computer network or system, telephone network, or data network or by a text message or instant message, a person whom the actor knows or believes to be under fifteen years of age and at least four years younger than the actor,” to expose or observe intimate body parts.

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Pelletier was represented in Maine by attorney Polly Reeves.

Betty Adams can be contacted at 621-5631 or at:

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams


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