BRATTLEBORO — A Connecticut man pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges he extorted virtual sexual favors from a woman he knew from years earlier after he threatened to distribute naked photos of her over social media.
Steven Charette, 30, of East Hartford, Conn., pleaded guilty to extortion, a felony, and disclosure of sexual images without consent, a misdemeanor, in a plea agreement. At the time of the threatening texts in 2019, the woman said she had no idea who was sending her the texts, and threatening to distribute the photographs.
Charette received a four-year deferred sentence, with one to two years, to serve, all suspended.
Windham County Superior Court Judge Michael Kainen said he personally found the case repulsive and he warned Charette that if he violated conditions of the deferred sentence, he would “find a way to put you in jail.”
“Don’t expect a second chance,” the judge said.
“I’m sort of disgusted with what I read,” said Kainen. “I can’t imagine what this woman went through. It’s a vile thing to do to someone. I’m surprised it’s still a misdemeanor.”
Charette, who had met the victim five years earlier while they both worked in the Mount Snow area in Dover, said he got the naked photos of the woman from “a third party.”
Charette told the judge that he had “thought every day for 2 1/2 years” about what he had done, and said he was “remorseful for what I did.”
According to statements in court, Vermont law will not require Charette to register as a sex offender, but Connecticut may require him to do so.
At the time of the threatening texts and his sexual demands, he would not identify himself to the woman, but sent her a copy of naked photographs of her she had months earlier sent to a male friend.
He demanded that she video-chat with him naked, while he masturbated. The woman, who said she was “terrified,” initially accused the anonymous man of blackmail, but eventually complied. She later went to the Dover Police, who successfully sought numerous warrants from various cell phone companies and social media firms to track down Charette.
The woman said after she learned who was behind the calls that she knew him, and had run into Charette in the summer of 2019 at a concert in Massachusetts and had loaned him her cell phone for about five minutes so he could call a friend. A few months later, the woman received the first threatening texts.
Attorney Richard Ammons, a Windham County public defender, said Charette “was very unhappy with himself” and wanted to settle the case. Ammons called Charette “a pretty honorable guy, a not too honorable event.”
Windham County Deputy State’s Attorney Dana Nevins said the case had harmed the Dover woman and humiliated her, but that she supported the resolution of the case.