A Mesa man, who according to police went by the online alter ego "Zel the Wolf"on the digital art-sharing site DeviantArt.com, was arrested this week for alleged online sexual contact with two 12-year-old girls and for bestiality.
ARIZONA -- An Arizona man has been arrested after police found video of him having sex with a dog during an investigation of an online sexual relationship with minors.Court records show that on Tuesday, Mesa, Arizona police arrested 21-year-old Aaron Thomas Usery who allegedly was in a sexual internet relationship with two 12-year-old girls.
During the police investigation, they not only found video evidence of that crime, but video depicting bestiality.
On March 23, the Overland Park Police Department alerted Mesa police to a sexual relationship Usery was with the minors.
A parent of one of the children told Overland Park police that their daughter and her friend were in an inappropriate relationship online with a man from Mesa since September 2014.
The statement says Usery told police that he met at least one of his girls through the website DeviantArt.com, where users submit "deviations," or art that has been created or altered digitally to meet the user's needs or wants.
The site, founded in 2000, boasts 38 million registered members and "over 65 million unique visitors per month," according to DeviantArt.com's "about" page.
"Our members — known as deviants — upload over 160,000 original art works every day," the site says, "everything from painting and sculpture to digital art, pixel art, films, and anime." DeviantArt.com also is a social-networking site for artists and the artistically-inclined, helping them, "find their identity through self-expression."
Usery's personal "gallery" on DeviantArt.com includes several poems, arty photographs of trees, numerous illustrations of "Zel-the-Wolf," selfies showing a much heavier Usery, and photos of individuals dressed from head-to-toe in anthropomorphic "fursuits," which Usery admired.
Overland Park police said evidence found on the victims’ electronic devices had photos and videos of Usery, also known as “Zel the Wolf,” that were sexual in nature.
The girls also sent him nude pictures and videos of themselves, according to authorities.
Mesa police seized Usery’s computer and phone and also found sexual pictures and videos of Usery and the girls.
During their investigation, Mesa police said they located a video showing Usery engaged in sexual activity with the family dog.
Usery was arrested Tuesday and faces charges of sexual exploitation a minor, providing obscene material to minors, luring a minor for sexual exploitation and bestiality.
On April 11, 2015, about two weeks after his home was raided by Mesa cops, Usery posted a goodbye note to the DA (DeviantArt.com) community, stating the following:
"Zel's unfortunately had to bid you all farewell. He's likely not coming back...life has called him to a newer, braver path. He wants you all to know that he holds the utmost respect for those whom he was lucky enough to call friend, and that he loves all of you... and will never forget any of you."
At the time, many of his fellow DA-ers seemed confused by his departure. Since then, there have been derogatory comments about the allegations concerning him and the 12-year-olds to what he called his "Au revoir" post.
"How's jail?" asks one user in December.
Another commenter quotes a news account of Usery's getting charged, with a warning:
"Be careful kids. You don't know who you are talking to online. YOU could have been the victim!"
Note: I have visited the website DeviantArt.com many times to view and possibly buy artwork. Just because this guy was a member of this site does not mean that everyone on this site is like him. It just happened to be a site that he frequented.
(Phoenix News Times and AZ Central - April 16, 2016)
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