A San Diego man accused of posting thousands of explicit photos of women on a so-called "revenge porn" website without their consent, then extorting money from those who wanted the images removed, pleaded not guilty Friday to 31 felony charges of conspiracy, identity theft and extortion.
Kevin Christopher Bollaert, 27, -- who is out of custody on $50,000 bail -- was charged last month by the state Attorney General's Office. Judge David Szumowski scheduled a preliminary hearing for March 17.
In December 2012, Bollaert created a website called "ugotposted.com," which allows people to create anonymous, public posts of private explicit photographs without their subjects' permission, according to court documents.
Commonly known as revenge porn, such images, generally of nude young women, typically are obtained consensually by the poster during a prior relationship, or are stolen.
Unlike other such online sites, on which those depicted in the photos are anonymous, ugotposted.com required that a poster include the subject's full name, location, age and social-networking profile link, according to the attorney general.
Under California law, it is illegal to willfully obtain someone's personal identifying information -- including name, age and address -- for any unlawful purpose, including with the intent to "annoy" or harass.
Between Dec. 2, 2012, and Sept. 17 of last year, Bollaert and unnamed co-conspirators posted 10,170 explicit photos without the subjects' consent, according to the attorney general's office.
Bollaert also allegedly created a second online site, "changemyreputation.com," which he used when people contacted ugotposted.com to request that content be removed from the site.
Bollaert allegedly extorted victims by replying with a changemyreputation.com email address and offering to remove the content for a fee ranging from $300 to $350.
