photo by: Journal-World File Photo

In this file photo from Aug. 4, 2020, a Lawrence Police Department patrol vehicle is pictured outside the Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center.

Two Lawrence men have been arrested after allegedly using Facebook and Snapchat to not only solicit underage girls, but to also find out where they live, according to recently released documents in their court cases.

Jared C. Spears, 28, of Lawrence, has been charged in Douglas County District Court with electronic solicitation, a high-severity felony, and stalking, a misdemeanor.

Michael K. Aller, 31, of Lawrence, has been charged with attempted rape, electronic solicitation and two counts of attempted aggravated indecent liberties with a child, all mid- to high-severity felonies.

The cases are unrelated but share some similarities, including how the alleged perpetrators were able to use social media to find the location of teenage girls. In one instance, a girl had her Snapchat account set to show her GPS location, which made it easy for the alleged stalker to see her exact whereabouts.

Parents can take measures to safeguard teens and children who are using social media and other online applications, Lt. David Ernst, of the Lawrence Police Department, told the Journal-World.

Specifically on the issue of shielding the child’s location, Ernst said it was fine for parents to activate the “Find my iPhone” or other similar tracking feature on their children’s phones. But he said it was important to ensure that the GPS function was turned off in social media applications that the child might be using.

Other tips Ernst provided include:

• Set ground rules for online activity.

• Communicate with your children about what they’re doing online.

• Be familiar with the applications your children are using (such as Snapchat, Instagram, Tik Tok, etc.) and know their passwords.

• Discuss the things children should not share, such as identifying information and personal images.

• Talk to your children about what to do if they receive unwanted contacts, messages or images. That includes making sure children understand they always should feel safe to tell a trusted adult about unwanted or inappropriate social media contacts, even if the children willingly participated at one point.

“A teen telling a trusted adult or the police is the best avenue to prevent the teen from being further victimized,” Ernst told the Journal-World via email when asked about concerns some teens may have in facing punishment if they come forward in such cases. “The welfare of the teen and the prevention of further victimization is the priority of the department.”

The Journal-World requested and recently received the police affidavits supporting the arrests of Spears and Aller. All details about their alleged crimes come from the affidavits released by the court. The allegations in the affidavits have not been proved in court, and defendants in criminal cases are presumed not guilty unless they are convicted.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office declined to release either man’s booking photo to the Journal-World.

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According to the affidavit in his case, Spears initially went to police on Dec. 9, 2019, to report that he believed someone had cloned his Snapchat account and used it to try to solicit nude photos from a minor. But as investigators asked him more specific questions, Spears eventually admitted that no one cloned his account and he had asked female users for photos, but only if they were of age.

Spears reportedly explained to investigators that, using Facebook and Snapchat, he’d “gotten away with” asking many women to send him nude photos, promising that he’d pay them — even offering up fake email testimonials he’d created himself to provide “legitimacy,” according to the affidavit — but never following through on that promise.

“He said it was a matter of ‘tricking’ and causing them disappointment, for revenge against women,” Lawrence Police Detective Jamie Lawson wrote in the affidavit.

But at one point, Spears reportedly contacted a 15-year-old girl via Snapchat.

The girl told her mother, and later police, that an adult man had added her as a friend on Snapchat and continued talking to her even after she told him how old she was and that it was not appropriate. The man reportedly said it was OK if they kept talking, if it was “consensual,” and that he’d also asked her if she was a virgin. Spears later told the investigators that he did not recall the girl telling him how old she was.

Spears allegedly told the girl that he pays women for nude photos, but her response “triggered” him and made him mad.

“Jared said she ‘went off on me’ during a paragraph long rant of ‘how disgusting that was,'” Lawson wrote. “… Jared said the following day, he may have sent her a message asking her if she wanted to have sex, to ‘get a rise out of her.'”

The girl told police she was scared when the man seemed to have pinpointed her exact location, even asking her about some of the features surrounding her house. Spears reportedly told investigators that the girl’s Snapchat was displaying her GPS location and he could see her whereabouts. He said he typed in the cross streets close to her and did it “just to scare her, because I was still mad,” according to the affidavit.

Another woman, a single mother, reportedly told police that Spears had contacted her with an offer to pay for photos. Desperate for cash, the woman agreed, but it soon became clear that he was never going to pay her. The woman said that when she told Spears she wouldn’t send more photos, she felt as though Spears was threatening to blackmail her, referring to her child by name and suggesting that he might send the photos to her employer.

Lawson noted in the affidavit that there was no dialogue in the Snapchat records that he was able to locate that indicated Spears was seeking nude photos of anyone under 18. Both Spears and the 15-year-old girl said they’d deleted their conversation and blocked each other, according to the affidavit.

Spears is being represented by the Swain Law Office, according to court records. The office did not respond to a request for comment sent via email last week. Spears has remained out of custody on a $20,000 own-recognizance bond while his case is pending. As a bond condition, he is not to have contact with any minors, according to court records.

Spears worked as a corrections officer at the Douglas County Jail from January 2017 through September 2018, Jenn Hethcoat, public information officer for the sheriff’s office, said via email Thursday.

“The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office performs criminal history, background and reference checks on all prospective employees but as you mentioned, the alleged incidents involving Mr. Spears took place long after his employment at the Sheriff’s Office ended,” Hethcoat wrote in response to questions from the Journal-World.

• • •

Police received a report about Aller contacting a 15-year-old Lawrence girl via Facebook in October.

The girl reportedly told police that she had informed Aller that she was half his age when he contacted her via Facebook messenger. A partial transcript of their conversation included in the affidavit shows that he reportedly asked her to send him photos, asked her if she likes talking to older guys, sent her photos exposing himself and eventually asked to meet up, describing sex acts he wanted to engage in.

The girl told Aller what street she lived on but said she could not leave her house, according to the affidavit. He reportedly sent her a map showing his location and indicating that he was on the way to her home.

While investigating the complaint, police also determined that Aller was engaging with an undercover account run by the police department but purporting to be a 13-year-old, according to one of two affidavits in his case.

Later the same day, the undercover account arranged to meet with Aller at a park in Lawrence, according to the affidavit. Officers met and arrested Aller when he arrived and gave a signal that it was him.

In the affidavit, police allege Aller had been on the 15-year old girl’s street three times that day. After offering several denials to specific police questions, Aller confirmed to police the contents of the messages with the real teen and the undercover account, according to the affidavit.

Aller was released from the Douglas County Jail a few days after his Oct. 28 arrest on a $160,000 surety bond, jail records show. As a bond condition, Aller is on house arrest with electronic monitoring, according to court records. He is also not to have any contact with minors. Aller has retained attorney Carl Cornwell, who declined to comment for this article.