Livingston Parish, Louisiana: sheriff's office says a woman first treated as a victim made the AI-generated nude photos and videos, rape threats and extortion attempts in an online threats case
On 24 July 2026 WBRZ, WAFB and the Livingston Parish News relayed a Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office (Louisiana) statement about an investigation into threats made by phone and online. The sheriff's office said one alleged victim was threatened with rape and other bodily harm unless money was paid, AI-generated photos and videos of one of the victims were sent to numerous family members and friends, and later threats included getting one victim fired. Homeland Security assisted after allegations that overseas suspects were involved through past relationships and acquaintances in Greece. The sheriff's office said subpoenas and search returns from platforms led back to a woman who had first been treated as a victim, and that after an interview with the woman the sheriff's office learned the woman made all of the fictitious accounts, the AI-generated nude photos and videos, the rape threats and the extortion attempts. The accused was booked on charges that include unlawful dissemination of AI nude photos, online impersonation and five counts of extortion, and was released on bond. The Livingston Parish News says the accused and one other person had reported as victims some or all of what the sheriff's office attributes to the accused. The charges are allegations and no conviction is reported. The AI tool is not identified, the victims are not described and the start date of the threats is not stated.
- AI system
- Unidentified image and video tool
- Occurred
- Event date unknown
- Reported
- 24 July 2026
- Event location
- United States
- What the AI did
- Depicted or impersonated the person
- Reported harm
- Exploitation or Abuse
- Whose AI use
- Someone else’s AI use
- Setting
- Privacy · Justice · Everyday life
- Evidence
- AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account
- 7 claims: 7 reported. 8 open questions
- People reported harmed
- At least 1 person
AI system as recorded: Unidentified AI photo and video generation tools (sheriff's office description)
Reported harm
The sheriff's office said one alleged victim was threatened with rape and other bodily harm unless money was paid, AI-generated photos and videos of one of the victims were sent to numerous family members and friends, and a later threat concerned getting one victim's employment terminated. The sheriff's office attributes all of this to the accused. No victim account is reported and the sources do not describe any effect on a victim.
What remains unknown
- The start date of the threats, the fictitious accounts and the sending of the material is not stated in any of the three outlets. Only the 24 July 2026 announcement is dated, so the event start is unknown and the case is published undated.
- The Livingston Parish News says the case began when detectives with the Livingston Parish Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force were assigned to assist in the investigation. No source states the age of any victim, so it is not known whether any victim is a minor.
- The victims are not identified or described. The sources do not say which of the people who reported as victims received the threats or was depicted, or whether the one other person who reported as a victim was harmed independently of the accused. The Livingston Parish News sentence that names the second reporter can be read as covering the whole list of material or only the demands for money.
- The number of family members and friends who received the material is not stated (the sources say numerous), and whether any payment was made is not reported.
- No AI tool is identified and no outlet reports examining the material. The description of the material as AI-generated is the sheriff's office statement.
- The account of the interview is the sheriff's office's. The accused's own account is not reported, no court finding is reported, the sheriff's office said future charges may be pending, and the charges are allegations.
- No overseas suspect is reported identified after the allegations about acquaintances in Greece.
- The three outlets rest on one sheriff's office statement and none reports independent verification.
What the evidence supports
AI involvement: reported. The sheriff's office described the photos and videos as AI-generated, and the accused was booked for unlawful dissemination of AI nude photos. No outlet identifies an AI tool or reports that the material was examined. The description is one sheriff's office statement relayed by three outlets. The images were not seen by the reviewer.
7 claims: 7 reported. What the statuses mean
Reported The Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office said an investigation into threats made by phone and online involved one alleged victim being threatened with rape and other bodily harm unless money was paid, and AI-generated photos and videos of one of the victims being sent to numerous family members and friends.
Causal attribution. The sheriff's office statement as relayed by three outlets. No victim account, court record or image was inspected. The sheriff's office attributes the creation and sending of this material to the accused.
- wbrz.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
one person was being threatened with rape and other bodily harm unless they paid money
- wbrz.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
AI-generated photos and videos of one of the victims were also sent to numerous family members and friends
- wafb.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
AI generated photos and videos were created of one of the victims and were sent out to numerous family members and friends
- livingstonparishnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
assigned to assist in an investigation into threats made by phone and online
Reported The sheriff's office said that later threats to the victims included a threat to get one victim's employment terminated.
Causal attribution. The sheriff's office statement as relayed by two outlets. The sources do not say whether the threat was carried out.
- wafb.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
more threats were sent to the victims, now threatening to get one of the victim’s employments terminated
- livingstonparishnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
eventually including a threat to get one victim fired
Reported The sheriff's office said that subpoenas and search returns from the platforms used to send the messages led back to the woman first believed to be a victim, and that, after an interview with the woman, the sheriff's office learned the woman was the person who made all of the fictitious accounts, the AI-generated nude photos and videos, the rape threats and the extortion attempts.
Causal attribution. The sheriff's office account of its investigation and of an interview, relayed by three outlets. The accused's own account of the interview is not reported, no court finding is reported and the sheriff's office said future charges may be pending. The accusation is an allegation.
- wbrz.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
search results and subpoenas from platforms used to send the threats pointed back to
- wafb.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
search returns and subpoenas from certain suspect platforms used to make these harassing messages and threats started coming back
- wafb.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
made all the fictitious accounts, AI-generated nude photos/videos, rape threats, and extortion attempts
- livingstonparishnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
created the fake accounts, the AI-generated nude photos and videos, the rape threats, and the demands for money that she and another person had reported as victims
Reported The accused was booked into the Livingston Parish Detention Center on charges that the three outlets list as one count each of unlawful dissemination of AI nude photos, online impersonation, injuring public record and domestic stalking, and five counts of extortion, and was released on a $150,000 bond.
Causal attribution. The charges are reported by three outlets from one sheriff's office statement, so they are one chain. No booking record or charging document was inspected. The charges are allegations and the sheriff's office said future charges may be pending.
- wbrz.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
was booked into the Livingston Parish Detention Center on one count each of unlawful dissemination of AI nude photos, online impersonation and injuring public record, along with five counts of extortion and one count of domestic stalking
- wbrz.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
has since been released on a $150,000 bond
- wafb.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Unlawful dissemination of AI nude photos (1 count)
- wafb.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Online impersonation (1 count)
- wafb.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Injuring public record (1 count)
- wafb.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Extortion (5 counts)
- wafb.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Domestic Stalking (1 count)
- livingstonparishnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
was booked into the Livingston Parish Detention Center on the following charges
- livingstonparishnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
One count, LRS 14:73.134, unlawful dissemination of AI nude photos
- livingstonparishnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
One count, LRS 14:73.10, online impersonation
- livingstonparishnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
One count, LRS 14:132, injuring public records
- livingstonparishnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Five counts, LRS 14:66, extortion
- livingstonparishnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
One count, LRS 14:40.2, domestic stalking
Reported The sheriff's office said Homeland Security assisted the investigation because of allegations that overseas suspects were involved, based on past relationships and acquaintances in Greece.
Causal attribution. The sheriff's office statement. The sources do not say any overseas suspect was identified, and the later finding attributes the material to the accused.
- wbrz.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
allegations that overseas suspects were involved due to past relationships and acquaintances in Greece
- livingstonparishnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Investigators brought in Homeland Security at one point over allegations that suspects overseas were involved, based on past relationships and acquaintances in Greece
Reported The Livingston Parish News wrote that detectives say the accused created the fake accounts, the AI-generated nude photos and videos, the rape threats and the demands for money that the accused and another person had reported as victims.
Causal attribution. A single sentence in one outlet's rewrite of the sheriff's office statement. The clause saying the accused and another person had reported as victims can attach to the whole list or only to the demands for money, and the record does not choose between the two readings. WBRZ and WAFB do not repeat it, and no source says which reporter received the threats or was depicted.
- livingstonparishnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
created the fake accounts, the AI-generated nude photos and videos, the rape threats, and the demands for money that she and another person had reported as victims
- livingstonparishnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
that she and another person had reported as victims
Reported The sheriff's office described the investigation as ongoing and asked anyone else who believes they were victimized in the case to contact it.
Causal attribution. The sheriff's office request as relayed by the outlets. It does not report any further victim.
- livingstonparishnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Anyone else who believes they were victimized in this case
- livingstonparishnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
The investigation is ongoing
- wafb.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
This is an ongoing investigation
Sources
3 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.
- WBRZ, relay of the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office statement, 24 July 2026(opens in new tab)
s1 · wbrz.com · News report · English · Inspected · Shares an underlying account with another listed source · Primary
- WAFB, 24 July 2026, relay of the sheriff's office statement(opens in new tab)
s2 · wafb.com · News report · English · Inspected · Shares an underlying account with another listed source
- Livingston Parish News, 24 July 2026, relay of the sheriff's office statement(opens in new tab)
s3 · livingstonparishnews.com · News report · English · Inspected · Shares an underlying account with another listed source
How the sources were read, and where the events happened
Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.
The Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office investigated the threats and the WAFB dateline reads LIVINGSTON PARISH, La. The sources do not state where the victims live or where the material was sent from. Greece appears only in allegations about unidentified overseas suspects and is not recorded as an event country. A judge set the bond but no court proceeding is described, so no court country is recorded.
Reviewed for publication 2026-09-30: Three outlets rest on one Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office statement of 24 July 2026 (one independence group) and all claims are reported. The accused is a private person who has not been convicted and is not named or located by town. The victims are not named or described. No imagery is described beyond its kind. The reporting is thin on the victims' own experience and the case is recorded as the sheriff's office account. The sources do not state when the threats began, so the case is published undated and is outside the 2026 event-year lane.
People reported harmed in this case
At least 1 person
0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed
The Livingston Parish News says the accused and one other person had reported as victims some or all of what the sheriff's office attributes to the accused. The accused is not counted as harmed. The one other person is counted as a person reported as a victim, so the count is a lower bound of 1. The sources use the plural 'victims' without a number and do not say which reporter received the threats or was depicted. Family members and friends who received the material are not counted.
Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.
Cite this case
Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.
APA
NOPE. (2026). Livingston Parish, Louisiana: sheriff's office says a woman first treated as a victim made the AI-generated nude photos and videos, rape threats and extortion attempts in an online threats case. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-livingston-parish-louisiana-arrest-in-extortion-case-involving-reported-ai-nude-photos-and-videos
BibTeX
@misc{2026_livingston_parish_louisiana_arrest_in_extortion_case_involving_reported_ai_nude_photos_and_videos,
title = {Livingston Parish, Louisiana: sheriff's office says a woman first treated as a victim made the AI-generated nude photos and videos, rape threats and extortion attempts in an online threats case},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {AI incidents},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-livingston-parish-louisiana-arrest-in-extortion-case-involving-reported-ai-nude-photos-and-videos}
} Related cases
New York: the Manhattan District Attorney seized 12 websites selling AI-generated sexual deepfakes of about 1,200 real people
On 14 September 2026 Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the seizure of 12 domain names used to disseminate, publish and sell non-consensual AI-generated sexual 'deepfake' videos. His office said individuals under investigation had used AI image- and video-creation tools to turn photos and videos of approximately 1,200 real people, overwhelmingly women, into hyper-realistic sexual imagery without consent. The victims included actors, politicians, athletes, musicians, activists and social-media influencers. WIRED and outside researchers reported that many videos reposted content from the defunct MrDeepFakes platform and that dozens of politicians appeared on the sites; investigations into who ran them are ongoing.
Brooklyn: federal prosecutors unsealed complaints on 20 May 2026 charging two unconnected men, of New Jersey and Texas, under the TAKE IT DOWN Act with publishing AI deepfake pornography of about 90 women and about 50 identifiable women (actresses, singers, political figures and, in one case, non-public women) since May 2025; among the earliest federal prosecutions under the 2025 law
On 20 May 2026 the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed two criminal complaints (docket numbers 26-MJ-96 and 26-MJ-97) charging Cornelius Shannon, 51, of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, and Arturo Hernandez, 20, of Bedias, Texas, with violating the TAKE IT DOWN Act, the federal law enacted on 19 May 2025 that prohibits the non-consensual publication of intimate images including AI-generated digital forgeries. The two were arrested the same day in unconnected cases. Prosecutors allege that since 19 May 2025 Shannon published at least 360 albums of AI deepfake pornography on an adult image- and video-sharing platform depicting approximately 90 different women, viewed millions of times, and that Hernandez published approximately 113 albums on a website depicting approximately 50 identifiable women, including individuals who are not public figures, in which non-explicit images morph into sexually explicit deepfakes, viewed nearly a million times. The victims included actresses, singers and political figures; TIME and TechTimes report, citing the complaint, that Hernandez's victims also included recent high-school graduates. Each defendant faces up to two years' imprisonment if convicted; the charges are allegations.
Columbus, Ohio: a man was sentenced to 15 years for cyberstalking at least six women with real and AI-generated sexual images and rape threats, the first conviction under the Take It Down Act
Between December 2024 and June 2025 James Strahler II, then 37, of Columbus (Upper Arlington), Ohio, harassed at least six women in central Ohio by phone, voicemail, text and web posts, sending them nude images that were both real and AI-generated, threatening rape, referring to their home addresses and demanding nude photos from their mothers. In one case he used AI to make pornographic videos depicting a victim with her father and sent them to her co-workers. He also posted AI-generated sexual images of boys from his community, morphing their faces onto other bodies. Prosecutors said he had installed more than 24 AI platforms and more than 100 web-based AI models on his phone. He pleaded guilty in April 2026 to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and publication of digital forgeries, and on 8 September 2026 Chief U.S. District Judge Sarah D. Morrison sentenced him to 180 months in prison. The U.S. Attorney called it the first conviction in the nation under the 2025 Take It Down Act.
Portland, Tennessee: a man who prosecutors say used AI to put children's faces onto sexual images and videos and traded them with a Canadian resident for real child sexual abuse material was sentenced to 30 years in Sumner County in September 2026
The Sumner County (18th Judicial District) District Attorney's Office said a 30-year-old Portland, Tennessee man was sentenced in Sumner County Criminal Court in September 2026 to 30 years in the Tennessee Department of Correction, to be served without probation, parole or early release. According to the prosecutors, he used artificial intelligence to place the faces of children onto images and videos of nude people and of people engaged in sexual acts, then exchanged the material with a Canadian resident for real child sexual abuse material. Canadian authorities found messages and material connected to him after arresting the person he was communicating with and alerted US law enforcement; a joint investigation by Portland police, Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI and the TBI led to his arrest in November 2025. He was also charged with tampering with evidence after investigators said he deleted material before officers entered his home to execute a search warrant. The children whose faces were used are not identified, their number is not reported, and the reports do not say which AI tool was used or which offences he was convicted of.
If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.