The Reason This High School Yearbook Photo Almost Made This Teenager a Felon
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Most high schools pull a senior prank toward the end of the year. Seniors see the end of their high school career and they want to go out with a bang. One Arizona 19-year-old did just that, and was arrested and charged with 69 misdemeanor charges and one felony, according to the Mesa Police Department.
Those charges, however, were dropped on Wednesday, according to The Washington Post.
Hunter Osborn posed for the Red Mountain High School football team's yearbook photo in Mesa. Here's the edited photo from local news station KPHO below. Can you see what's wrong with this picture?
CBS 5- KPHO - cbs5az.com
That's not a ghost over Osborn's crotch. It's a blur because his exposed penis was out.
Osborn says his teammates told him to do it.
CBS 5 - KPHO - cbs5az.com
This prank could have dramatically changed Osborn's life.
Because his exposed penis isn't immediately obvious, the unedited photo made it into the yearbook and was distributed to 3,400 students and then also reprinted in the school's football program according to CBS News.
The Mesa Police Department said that the 69 misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure came fom the fact that there were 69 students and 10 faculty members present when the photo was taken and some of those people were under the age of 18. Osborne also faced one felony charge of "furnishing harmful items to minors." The charges were dropped because everyone present declined to press charges, according to The Post. If he was convicted, it could have meant a lifetime of living with a felony and misdemeanor crimes of indecent exposure on his record.
Some media outlets, such as the Daily Mail, reported that Osborn may have had to register as a sex offender.
However, according to the list of sex offender registration offenses posted by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, it appears there has to be a second offense of indecent exposure to require sex offender registration.
Arizona Department of Public Safety - azdps.gov
Det. Nik Rasheta from the Mesa Police Department sent this statement to ATTN:
"On Saturday 4/30/16 officers were made aware of a student from Red Mountain High School who had exposed himself in a football team picture now published in the yearbook. The yearbook had been distributed before it was brought to the attention of school officials. The student, Hunter Osborn, age 19, was contacted and interviewed about the picture. Hunter was 18 when the picture was taken and said that he was dared by a football teammate. Based on the photo and admission, he was booked for 69 counts of indecent exposure( class 1 misdemeanor) and one count of furnishing harmful items to minors( class 4 felony). The multiple counts are based on the number of individuals present who are also victims of that particular offense."
Some people on Twitter were calling the charges ridiculous while others though that Osborn should be punished for his prank.
Update: 5/5 8:47 a.m. PST: This story was updated to include that charges were dropped in this case.
