Gay Fla. Teen Back in Jail for Relationship with Underage Girlfriend

Hemera/Thinkstock(INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla.) — Florida teen Kaitlyn Hunt is behind bars again Tuesday after authorities charged her with sending lewd photos and videos of herself to her underage girlfriend after being ordered not to contact the girl at all.

Hunt had already been charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a child for the sexual relationship she engaged in with her girlfriend while Hunt was 18 and the girl was 14. She was released on bond, but ordered not to contact the younger girl.

Judge Robert Pegg revoked Hunt’s bail Tuesday afternoon after prosecutors presented evidence that Hunt had sent more than 20,000 text messages as well as lewd photos and videos of herself to the younger girl despite the conditions of her bond.

Hunt, now 19, appeared in court in Indian River County, Fla., in an orange jail jumpsuit, handcuffed and shackled to her chair. She had voluntarily turned herself in at the Indian River County Jail on Monday afternoon, authorities said.

Indian River County Sheriff’s child crime detective Jeremy Shepherd read aloud from the witness stand some of the more than 20,000 text messages Hunt and the underage girl allegedly exchanged since February, when Hunt was first arrested and ordered not to contact the younger teen.

According to Shepherd, Hunt arranged to give the younger girl an iPod in March, after Hunt was ordered to leave their high school. Hunt put the iPod in the younger girl’s locker, and then the two began communicating using it, the child crime detective said Tuesday.

The messages showed both girls saying they missed one another, the victim telling Hunt that she loved her, and the pair fighting over what the victim would tell police about the case.

“The victim said, ‘I’m sorry baby. They told me your family has put them in a position not to drop it anymore.’ Then she says, ‘I love you Kaitlyn, a lot, you know,'” Shepherd read from the text message log on the stand.

The girls also allegedly met for secret trysts in recent months, according to the detective, who said the younger girl told him that she would go out running and Hunt would pick her up in her car, and the pair would drive to a dirt road to engage in sexual contact.

Shepherd also described in detail the nude photos and sexual videos Hunt allegedly sent the younger girl.

Hunt was charged Tuesday with disseminating harmful content to a child. She has not yet entered a plea for that count.

Hunt’s attorney, Julia Graves, condemned prosecutors in a statement released after the hearing, saying that they should have used vague language to describe the allegations and not further embarrassed Hunt and the victim.

“For (State Attorney) Chris Taylor to file a notice with those kinds of details in it, I just cannot begin to fathom why that was necessary,” Graves said, referring to the explicit text messages filed as evidence in court. “If this matter had been considered properly in the beginning for what it truly is, we would not be where we are today — and that is with two devastated lives and two devastated families.”

The attorney representing the alleged victim did not immediately respond to ABC News for comment.

Shepherd said authorities became aware of the ongoing contact earlier this month, when the alleged victim’s father contacted them after finding out about the ongoing contact. Sheriff’s detectives then examined the iPod and found lewd photographs and a video of Hunt.

According to Hunt’s family and attorney, the girls met while playing basketball together on their high school team in the fall of 2012, when Hunt was a senior and the younger girl a freshman. The two became romantically involved.

When the younger girl’s parents found out, they notified authorities. Police then had the younger teen call Hunt and ask her details about their relationship, while they recorded the conversation, according to police. Hunt was then arrested.

Graves said in her statement on Tuesay that the younger teen did not want to press charges against Hunt.

“It comes down to we still have a situation of two teenagers who were in school together and involved in a consensual relationship. Yes, one that under current law is a crime, but still consensual,” Graves said.

“(The alleged victim’s) opinion is ignored by the State, interrogated by the Sheriff’s Department, taken to a church that labels being gay a sin, has the Bible thrown at her,” and has fought with her parents over the case, Graves said.

The younger girl has not spoken publicly about the case.

Prosecutors in the case had previously offered Hunt a plea deal that would keep her out of prison but leave her with a felony conviction, a deal that Hunt’s family was still considering last week when the prosecutor filed a motion alleging further crimes.

The State Attorney’s office has now taken the plea deal off of the table in light of the new allegations.

Hunt is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charge on Friday.

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