LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — A 22-year-old man is charged with rape in Leavenworth County because authorities say they have evidence that he got a 13-year-old girl drunk and then had sex with her.
The child’s mother first reported Nicholas Clark, an employee of the Youth Center at Ft. Leavenworth, on Sept. 5, 2014. She said she discovered text messages on her daughter’s phone that were sexual in nature to and from someone named “Nick.”
When the girl’s mother found the messages, she went to police because she said they described her daughter being picked up from a friend’s house to go and meet Nick. There was a message discussing alcohol being furnished to the 13-year-old.
“We filed six charges, one count of rape, two counts of aggravated solicitation of a child, two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, and one count of furnishing alcohol to a minor for the purposes of rape,” said Todd Thompson, the Leavenworth County attorney.
Thompson says social media has made sharing images and inappropriate conversations more common.
“The advent of technology, the use of phones, iPads, computers, everything like that, it has made it more possible for us to have tangible evidence,” added Thompson.
When police interviewed the teenager, she admitted having an intimate relationship with Nick and said she knew he was 22 years old. Police say she told them she knew they were not allowed to be together but “things just got out of hand.”
After descriptive and intimate texts allegedly sent between the two, when the teenager asked what happened, “Nick” replied: “You got drunk. Then you were uncontrollable but you played it off for a while that you were fine and it wasn’t until later that I realized how bad you were. So you slept over to help sober you up.”
At one point as the sexually descriptive text conversation continues, “Nick” asks her how she is going to pay him back for taking care of her while she was drunk. “What do you want?” she asks and “Nick” replies with a suggestion of a sex act.
The text messages were allegedly being sent and received through an app called “Tango”, which is a popular platform that gives the ability to communicate by voice, text and video regardless of your operating system, and provides the ability for group chats and calls.
In the probable cause affidavit, the prosecutor says Nicholas Clark’s cell phone matches the cell phone number used in the Tango texts.
“A lot of them just require a username and password, so you can set up a fake email account and do that through that method, but Tango is a little different because it requires much less in terms of scrutiny and identification,” said Matthew Barksdale, the President of Engage Mobile, a mobile development and strategy company.
Barksdale says there dozens of apps like Tango.
“In essence, you can’t really stay in front of the technology, every day new apps are coming out,” Barksdale said. “If kids want to get into these apps and if they have the ability to download the apps, then they can get in and start using the chat functions immediately.”
You can even communicate without revealing your identity.
“This is really the equivalent of 20 years ago when you teach your kids not to get in the van with strangers,” Barksdale added.
Sherrie Balmer, who works at a treatment facility for teens and adolescents, says parents should do their research, and most importantly, talk to their kids.
“Have that conversation with the child before they ever even get the smartphone, get the tablet, to establish some ground rules,” Balmer said.
Balmer says the best way to find out what social media sites your kids are using is to tap on each app and see for yourself.
“Then the parent has a visual knowing that this is what the app looks like, this is what it can do, this is what my kid might be exposed to,” added Balmer.
Balmer says knowing about the app makes it easier to open a discussion, and says open communication will help educate both parties on what`s going on.
Clark is charged with two counts of aggravated indecent solicitation, two counts of aggravated indecent liberties, one count of rape, and furnishing alcoholic beverages to a minor for illicit purposes.
Col. Timothy Wulff, the Fort Leavenworth Garrison Commander, provided this statement to FOX 4:
“The most important thing to me is the safety and well-being of our children. The Army takes this issue very seriously and has reviewed and improved its procedures to safeguard its children following the Fort Myers Child Development Center (CDC) incident back in 2012 that uncovered childcare-providers with criminal records working in our centers. Now all Army employees and volunteers who work with children of any age have to pass extensive local and national background checks. When Nicholas Clark was hired, he had a background check just like any other employee and came back clean. After the parents of the girl came forward, there was an investigation done to make sure all procedures at the Child, Youth & School Services (CYSS) were followed correctly, and they were. Letters were sent out to parents who had their children registered at CYSS explaining what had happened and asked if anyone else had any issues to please come forward; no one else came forward. This was an isolated incident. The two did initially meet here on post, but all illegal activity happened off post and the case was turned over to the Leavenworth Police Department. Mr. Clark has been terminated and Fort Leavenworth will continue to ensure the safety of our youth here on the fort.”