Phoenix Man Streamed Alleged Rape Video Online, Police Say

June 3, 2009 — -- A Phoenix man was arrested Monday after allegedly using a webcam to live-stream a video of himself raping his girlfriend of two weeks while she lay unconscious in her bed.

Johnathan Hock, 20, of Surprise, Ariz., faces charges of sexual assault, kidnapping and taking a surreptitious photo after the woman he is accused of raping reported the incident to authorities, according to a probable-cause statement filed Monday in Arizona's Maricopa County Superior Court and obtained by ABCNews.com.

The 20-year-old woman, who was not named in the filings, told authorities that she learned of the alleged assault and the video after "receiving numerous text messages from her friends," according to the statement.

After she was told about the video, which was allegedly filmed Feb. 26, the woman told authorities she logged onto the two sites where it had been allegedly posted, Stickam.com and Stickydrama.com, and found photos "of Johnathan Hock lying next to her as she was nude from the waist down," according to the statement.

The woman, who, according to the statement, had passed out for four to five hours as a result of drinking alcohol on the night of the alleged assault, said that she did not give Hock permission to perform the alleged acts. The statement also said that the victim had been dating Hock for two weeks before the assault.

Witnesses who viewed the video reported having seen Hock allegedly perform oral sex on the victim while she was asleep, according to the statement.

The Phoenix Police Department, which received a five-minute video from Stickum.com that they believed was incomplete, said in the statement that Hock allegedly made comments about how the victim was "completely passed out" and how he could "have sex with her without her knowledge."

Detective James Holmes at the Phoenix Police Department said that Hock is being held at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office jail. The lawyer for Hock, who requested an attorney before authorities were able to question him, is not yet known, Holmes said.

"Unfortunately, the way that things are in cyberspace and texting, I really feel that it was inevitable that something like this happened," he said.

Holmes confirmed that the videos have since been removed from the Web site but said that there are still images featuring Hock and a woman who they are not sure is the same woman who is making the allegations.

May Be First for Such an Event

Messages left for the administrators of Stickam.com were not immediately returned, but Chris Stone, the 30-year-old owner of Stickydrama.com, told ABCNews.com that Hock is well-known among MySpace and Facebook users and is often featured on sites like Stickydrama.com, which considers itself to be an online tabloid for popular Internet users.

"On my site we repost other people's screen recordings about controversial things that happen on sites like Stickam.com and then we blog and post about it," Stone said.

Stone admits to having posted many videos featuring Hock, as well as still images from the alleged rape that is now being investigated.

Stone said he had no objections to reposting such images. "I follow the letter of the law and I think it's a good thing over time for teenagers, in particular, to see what's happening and what the consequences are of meeting people and getting drunk with them off the Internet," Stone said.

Stone alleged that Hock and the woman who made the allegations met via MySpace.

Stone said he is still deciding whether to post the full-length video on Stickydrama.com, adding that many of his users have been asking him to do so.

Parry Aftab, the executive director of WiredSafety.org, said that this may be the first time an event alleged to be a forced rape has been streamed online.

"I'm very surprised we haven't seen actual forced rapes up on the video-sharing sites until now because we've seen so many other crimes," Aftab said. "I've seen videos of coerced sex but not rape."

Aftab said that unlike video sharing sites such as YouTube and MySpace, sites like Stickum.com and its offshoot, Stickydrama.com, don't have trained personnel to monitor offensive material that is posted.

"These Web sites and their owners have no legal liability for what is on their site because of the Communications Decency Act," said Aftab, adding that she has reached out to both sites to offer advice on how they can become safer for their users.

But, she added, "it's time for these sites to get their acts together."

According to Aftab, sites like the ones where Hock allegedly posted videos are not particularly popular beyond their users who are typically part of a ritualistic following.

Even so, Aftab said that as webcam videos become more and more popular, sites must scramble to maintain effective security.

"Now we have webcam capabilities on Xbox, a video capture and sexting video capability on cell phones, a lot more community Web camming is going on," Aftab said.

"What we need to do now is let everyone know that committing a violent crime is not a good idea, and if you're going to do it, and take video of it, I'm going to find you faster."

The Phoenix Police Department asks anyone who has seen the videos or come in contact with Hock to call Detective Karen Allbright at (602) 534-0203.