Avon police trainee faces cyberstalking, attempted kidnapping, child porn charges

An Avon police trainee is facing several federal charges — including attempted kidnapping and cyberstalking — along with multiple child pornography charges.

Casey Medina, 33, of Rochester was arrested in August by the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office at the Rural Police Training Academy in Livingston County on state charges. Federal prosecutors say Medina had talked abut abducting, drugging and raping a victim, and tried to get someone to help harass the victim.

The charges carry a minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years.

According to U.S. Attorney Katelyn Hartford, the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office was contacted in May by a 31-year-old woman who reported that she had been receiving text messages from unknown numbers that including photos showing her face superimposed on various pornographic images. She reported being threatened with kidnapping, rape, sexual abuse and death by the unknown numbers. She told investigators that the messages occurred over the course of about 26 days, and then sporadically through June and July.

In August, police received a tip from someone who said he had communicated with someone with the user name “credal” via social media. This person, later identified as Medina, was looking for someone to harass the victim and provided her personal information — including her workplace, home address, cell phone number and more — according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The person giving the tip showed police several screenshots, including discussions about abducting, drugging and raping the woman. An undercover law officer began communicating with Medina online, talking about the same.

Investigators executed a search warrant on Medina’s cell phone and recovered the conversations about abduction, drugging and rape, plus images and videos of child pornography that Medina shared online, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.