Teen charged with posting nude photos of classmates

PHILADELPHIA — A Montgomery County teen has been charged with posting nude photos of female classmates to a file-sharing website.

Brandon Tyler Berlin, 18, was a senior at North Penn High School when he collected dozens of sexually explicit photos from classmates and shared them with others by uploading them to Dropbox, officials said.

Many of the students sent photos of themselves to their boyfriends, said Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, and the boys shared the photos with Berlin.

“I cannot think of a case of this magnitude that we’ve had in Montgomery County, but certainly when you look regionally and nationally, you hear about many more of these type of events,” Ferman said. “And it generally follows the same pattern.”

Police said Berlin’s Dropbox account contained sexually explicit photos of more than 30 students. He was charged Wednesday with transmission of sexually explicit images by a minor — a misdemeanor under Pennsylvania’s teen-sexting law.

Police learned of the photo sharing at North Penn in March, from a student who accessed her boyfriend’s e-mail account and found a link to the Dropbox file.

An investigation began, drawing attention to the Lansdale high school and the broader issue of teen sexting. Similar cases of teenagers sharing nude photos through Dropbox have been reported in Virginia, California, Missouri and elsewhere.

Dozens of North Penn students were involved in sending photos, Ferman said, but only Berlin was charged. He is the alleged mastermind behind the Dropbox sharing.

Teen sexting has been a special category of crime in Pennsylvania since 2012. Those age 12 to 17 who consensually share explicit photos can be charged with summary-level offenses. Passing the photos to others or using them to harass or intimidate others can lead to misdemeanor charges, which Berlin is facing.

All teen-sexting crimes are less serious than a charge of child pornography. Pennsylvania and other states have passed laws in response to an increasing number of cases in which juveniles share sexually explicit images of other juveniles.

Still, charging decisions are left to prosecutors.

“In theory, we could have charged every juvenile involved who sent even one image,” Ferman said. “I didn’t think it was an appropriate use of our resources to create a whole universe of either criminals or juvenile delinquents for the act of sending one or two images.”

Police said Berlin’s Dropbox account, where he also stored research papers and science experiments, had a folder for nude photos titled “I prolly had ur pics.”

That same phrase was Berlin’s senior quote in the North Penn 2015 yearbook.

In Dropbox, subfolders were listed as the name of the female in the photos, police said, and one folder with several images was titled “miscellaneous.” Investigators have identified 28 of the 37 females in the photos.

Police said many of the photos were sent through Snapchat, a messaging app in which photos are automatically deleted after they are viewed unless the recipient saves them immediately.

Police said Berlin admitted that he gathered the photos, uploaded them to Dropbox, and shared links to the account.

Berlin, of North Wales, was a minor when he shared the images. Thus, he was arraigned Wednesday in Juvenile Court and released on $10,000 unsecured bail. The case was then transferred and he will be prosecuted as an adult.

Berlin could not be reached for comment Wednesday. He graduated from North Penn High School this year, officials said, with plans to attend Montgomery County Community College.

Court records show Berlin has previous arrests unrelated to sexting. He pleaded guilty in May to disorderly conduct and was charged in December with possession of marijuana; the drug charges were withdrawn in June.

Berlin’s criminal case comes as a new school year begins; North Penn resumed classes Tuesday.

After news about the photos circulated in the 3,500-student school in March, hundreds of students met with administrators to discuss issues related to sharing the photos.

North Penn is working to better educate students about safe use of social media and technology, spokeswoman Christine Liberaski said Wednesday.

“We have held multiple programs on the subject for both parents and students,” she said. “Our efforts will continue and evolve as technology does.”

Ferman said the case is an opportunity for parents to speak with their teens.

“This has to be a teachable moment for us with our kids,” Ferman said. “They have to understand that once you share something, even with just one person, once you share something online, electronically, you can’t get it back and you lose complete control over where it goes.”