It is a really confusing story, because Birdman eventually did meet and have sex with the 17-year-old girl, but he technically never spoke to her directly (online that is), because it was all part of an elaborate catfishing scheme by a 31-year-old woman.
Here are the details, see if you can follow along.
Authorities say Shelly Chartier set up a fake Facebook profile for Andersen in 2011 and started communicating with a 17-year-old California girl, who believed she was talking to the basketball player.
Chartier then set up a profile as the girl and began communicating with Andersen.
She would send Andersen messages and explicit photos from the girl and forged a relationship between the two, who had never actually spoken to each other.
Chartier even arranged a real-life meeting between the two in Colorado.
The two had sex during at least one of their encounters.
Afterwards, the Canadian continued to communicate with the woman from California posing as Andersen and began making sexually explicit demands of her.
Chartier then started posing as the girl’s mother and tried to extort money from Andersen, threatening to report him to the police for statutory rape.
Chartier demanded ‘hush money’, and Andersen eventually sent her a $3,000 check.
She also then, as Andersen, threatened the girl. Additionally she posted some the nude photos the girl had sent online and sent her the link.
Finally, the young woman went to authorities and reported the basketball player, triggering a child exploitation investigation and a raid of Andersen’s home by the Internet Crimes Against Children unit.
Investigators seized his computer and other electronic equipment.
At the time it was reported that he was being investigated as part of a child porn probe.
Andersen told police the girl had lead him to believe she was 21.
The age of consent in Colorado is 17, so Birdman was never charged. It is just strange even though they met in person, they couldn’t figure out that a third-party was doing all the manipulating.
The woman will be going to jail for 18 months on various charges.