A Cochise County man is facing multiple felonies for allegedly engaging in threatening blackmail activities against a female acquaintance after he made copies of erotic photographs he found at her residence.
Christopher Michael Reagan has been summoned to the Sierra Vista Justice Court for a June 1 initial hearing on four counts of theft by extortion and three counts of taking the identity of another. Reagan, 24, faces several years in prison if convicted at trial of all counts.
According to court documents, a Sierra Vista woman began receiving social media communications in June 2021 in which the sender threatened to distribute copies of adult-themed photographs of the woman if she did not send the blackmailer new nude photos. The threats continued into July, including one in which the sender described wanting to sexually assault the woman.
Sierra Vista Det. John Andela noted in his report that the blackmailer used two Facebook accounts and an Instagram account, each under a different username, to send the messages over several weeks.
The woman did not recognize the names on the accounts even though the sender clearly knew personal information about the layout of the woman’s residence, place of employment. The blackmailer also knew the woman had contacted police.
Andela applied for and received court approval for search warrants seeking account holder information for the social media accounts. In January, this led the detective to discover two of the accounts were registered to someone with “chrisreagan” as part of the email address of record.
When asked about the name, the woman told Andela that a Chris Reagan and his girlfriend had stayed in her home for several weeks between February and May 2021. The extortion activities began shortly after the two left, the police report notes.
On Feb. 7, Andela spoke with Reagan who purportedly admitted finding several polaroid photos of the woman in the apartment while he was staying there.
“He admitted to taking photos of the polaroid photos with his phone and later using those photos to extort (the woman) to send him nude photos via Facebook and Instagram,” Andela wrote in his report, adding that Reagan also admitted using “scare tactics” in his attempt to obtain more photographs of the woman.
Reagan said he engaged in the threatening activity “during a time when he was under great stress and drinking too much alcohol,” according to the police report.
The criminal charges will not come as a surprise to Reagan, who Andela booked into the Cochise County jail on suspicion of second-degree burglary and extortion. after the Feb. 7 interview. Reagan was released by a justice of the peace on his own recognizance the next day, and the case was dismissed 48 hours later when the Cochise County Attorney’s Office did not pursue charges.
Arizona Daily Independent has learned there was never a question of whether Reagan would be prosecuted. Instead, the delay in filing the criminal complaint allowed time to determine if burglary was an appropriate charge given Reagan had been invited into the victim’s residence.
The delay also provided more time for Andela to develop the fraudulent identity charges in connection with the social media accounts Reagan opened in other people’s names.
