Strutz’s messages ensued for months and became more aggressive. One included stills from a video of her exiting the shower, with threats of distributing the image if she did not comply with his demands. — Image by user18526052 on Freepik
A Ceres man was sentenced on Nov 27 to three years and four months in US federal prison for cyberstalking after he secretly took a video of a woman who was staying at an Airbnb while she was in the bathroom.
Kevin James Strutz, 51, was convicted and sentenced for two incidents involving two women who were harassed with the intent of eliciting sex or sexually explicit material from them. The FBI investigated.
In February 2020, Strutz was living in a residence where his mother would rent out rooms, through Airbnb. A woman working as a travelling occupational therapist was renting from Strutz’s mother when she found a cellphone in the bathroom. It contained a draft of a text, written by Strutz, with sexually explicit language aimed toward the woman, according to court documents.
The woman – who remained anonymous in court documents – promptly cancelled her stay and reported the incident to Airbnb. Strutz then sent several messages to the woman through Facebook messenger, expressing anger that her complaint compromised his mother’s ability to rent rooms through Airbnb. That led the woman to file a report with the Ceres Police Department in April 2020.
Strutz’s messages ensued for months and became more aggressive. One included stills from a video of her exiting the shower, with threats of distributing the image if she did not comply to his demands. In June 2020, the woman contacted the FBI’s Stockton office, which executed a search warrant for online accounts Strutz used to send these messages, as well as records from Airbnb.
In November of that year, the FBI served a search warrant at Strutz’s residence in Ceres. There was an hours-long standoff, with Strutz barricading himself in the attic, eventually ending in his arrest.
Investigators later learned about another incident in 2018, involving a woman to whom Strutz had sent numerous threatening “electronic messages” and 15 handwritten letters. Many were meant to elicit the woman into performing sexual acts. This incident was included as a “superseding indictment”, which is a new indictment replacing the old one, according to Lauren Haywood, public information officer for the US Attorney’s Office.
In addition to the three years and four months of prison time, Stutz was ordered to pay over US$1,700 in restitution. – The Modesto Bee (Modesto, Calif.)/Tribune News Service
