Ridgefield High School student accused of 'catfishing' students to get nude photos from boys
A Ridgefield High School student is accused of "catfishing" up to 15 students through text apps to get potentially thousands of nude photos from boys at his school.
Dennis Antonov, 18, appeared Monday in Clark County Superior Court on 13 counts of second-degree possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and 13 counts of disclosing intimate images, according to court records.
Antonov was arrested Friday at his home and booked into the Clark County Jail. Court records indicate he has since been released.
He is not to have contact with the victims in the case, minors or Ridgefield High School. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday, court records show.
Ridgefield police, along with the Ridgefield School District, began investigating April 13 following reports of catfishing, a term used when someone pretends to be someone else. Two students told police that Antonov disclosed he had thousands of nude photos of boys at the school he obtained by posing as a girl named Hazel through spoofing text apps, according to court records. The apps allow users to hide their phone number under a false one.
The two students said they were on a field trip in New York and had stayed up late with Antonov talking at their hotel. They said Antonov asked them how many "hidden photos" they had on their cellphones. He allegedly told them he had 10,000 hidden photos. He then showed them various nude photos of high school-age boys. The two students said they could identify at least 11 boys, court records state.
Antonov allegedly told them he would send photos from Google of girls in exchange for photos from the boys. He also allegedly told the two he had photos from the past four years. The two students told police that Antonov said he was catfishing someone while they were at the hotel together, according to court records.
A search warrant was issued April 29 for Antonov's phone. Investigators reportedly found five text spoofing apps and at least 13 nude photos of minors.
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