JUNE 11--A 24-year-old Massachusetts woman who allegedly masqueraded
as a teenage boy is facing federal charges for engaging in illicit
sexual conduct with a 15-year-old girl who was unaware that the
boyfriend she met online was actually a female.
Carissa Hads was arrested two weeks ago on a U.S. District Court
complaint accusing her of coercion or enticement of a minor, a felony
carrying a maximum of 30 years in prison.
On Friday, Hads was ordered held without bond by a federal magistrate
judge who ruled she was a flight risk and a danger to the community.
Following Hads’s May 24 arrest, agents searched her front pants
pocket and located a “fake, flesh-colored penis” that she apparently
used during one of two prior sexual encounters with the teenage victim.
According to an affidavit sworn by an Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigator,
Hads--posing as a 17-year-old boy named “James Puryear Wilson”--met the
teenage girl on an unnamed “social networking site” around October
2010.
“Wilson” maintained Facebook and MySpace pages that described him as a
“youth pastor” living in Quincy, Massachusetts (where Hads actually
resides). On Facebook, “Wilson” claimed to be the father of twins and
noted that he was “looking for some people to talk to. No fake pages or
pervs.”
The girl, who lives in West Virginia, is identified only as “A.L.” in the affidavit.
Hads, using the “Wilson” persona, and the girl became “involved in an
internet romance” that included Hads sending the teen two cell phones
“for A.L.’s use to contact ‘him.’” Along with paying the girl’s monthly
cell phone bills, Hads also sent her a Kindle Fire tablet, according to the affidavit.
The teenager told investigators that she used the phones to take
naked photos of herself, and that she “forwarded these pictures, some of
which focused on her vagina, to ‘Wilson.’” Hads and the girl would also
write in “notebooks/journals and mail them back and forth to each other
so each could respond to the other’s writings.”
“Wilson” told “A.L.” that he lived in Massachusetts with his aunt,
and told the girl that he also had an aunt “named Carissa Hads,” an
investigator reported.
In December 2011, after communicating for 14 months, “Wilson” asked
to meet “A.L.” in person. A subsequent rendezvous was arranged by the
girl’s mother, who accompanied her daughter (and two other teenage
girls) to meet “Wilson” at a Pennsylvania motel about 100 miles from the
family’s West Virginia residence.
“Wilson,” who claimed to have flown from Massachusetts to the nearby
Pittsburgh airport, stayed at the same motel “in a separate room paid
for by A.L.’s mother,” according to the affidavit sworn by West Virginia State Trooper Robert Talkington.
During the group's stay at the motel, “‘Wilson’ digitally penetrated A.L.’s vagina,” Talkington charged.
Two months later, “Wilson” flew to West Virginia, and was picked up
by the girl’s mother, who transported “Wilson” to her home. During that
five-day stay in late-February, “Wilson” and “A.L.” “engaged in sexual intercourse,” according to the affidavit.
In a May 8 interview with law enforcement agents, the girl further
described the sexual encounter in her home with “Wilson.” The teenager
said that “Wilson,” who did not undress, “pulled his ‘penis’ through his
unzipped pants, and held on to the base of the ‘penis’ during the
sexual encounter.” The girl, who said the act was videotaped, “described
the ‘penis’ as flesh-colored.”
The teenager said that “Wilson"--whom she never saw naked (or
partially naked)--wore a back brace that “covered ‘his’ chest,”
Talkington noted.
Hads, unaware that the girl had begun cooperating with law
enforcement, was arrested last month after traveling to Pittsburgh for
what she apparently thought would be a third sexual encounter with the
teenage victim.The criminal probe of Hads was triggered by a tip sent to the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The complainant
alleged that “Wilson” had threatened the life of a 15-year-old girl (who
is apparently an acquaintance of “A.L.”). “Wilson” reportedly
threatened the teen after she told “A.L.” that she did not believe
“Wilson” was “who ‘he’ said ‘he’ was,” according to the court affidavit.
