Prosecutors in extortion case ask for phone passwords

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Hencha Voigt, of Miami WAGS fame, and Wesley Victor are excused of trying to extort $18,000 out of Snapchat celebrity YesJulz, aka Julieanna Goddard
Prosecutors on Tuesday asked a judge to compel suspects to unlock their phones, which they believe contain evidence
Voigt's attorney argued prosecutors' demand violates her right to remain silent and not to incriminate herself
Victor and Voigt were arrested during a sting operation in Miami last July

Published: 14:56 EDT, 26 April 2017 | Updated: 17:41 EDT, 26 April 2017

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Prosecutors in a 'sextortion' case involving Snapchat celebrity YesJulz have asked a Florida judge to compel the defendants to unlock their phones, which they believe contain evidence.

Fitness model and reality star Hencha Voigt and her alleged accomplice Wesley Victor were arrested in July 2016 on extortion charges for allegedly threatening to leak nude photos of the so-called 'queen of Snapchat’ YesJulz, whose real name is Julieanna Goddard, unless she paid them $18,000.

On Tuesday, prosecutors appeared before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Charles Johnson requesting that he force Voigt and Victor to disclose their phone passcodes, or enter them into their devices themselves.

Fitness model and reality star Hencha Voigt (left) and her alleged accomplice Wesley Victor (right) are facing extortion charges in a case out of Miami involving a social media star

Target: The pair allegedly threatened to leak nude photos of the so-called 'queen of Snapchat’ YesJulz, whose real name is Julieanna Goddard, unless she paid them $18,000

Speaking out: Goddard has been very vocal about the criminal case against her accused blackmailers on social media

She tweeted out this message to her 154,000 followers a day after the court hearing concerning the suspects' phone passcodes

Voigt's defense attorney, Kertch Conze, slammed the demand as a 'fishing expedition' and argued that it amounts to forcing his client to divulge her thought process, which violates her rights to remain silent and not to incriminate herself, reported Miami Herald.

Victor’s attorney, Zeljka Bozanic, struck a similar note, claiming that the prosecution had presented no compelling arguments that would justify violating his client’s rights protected under the Fifth Amendment.

‘They have no idea if there is any evidence on the phones,’ she said.

Voigt appeared last fall on a season of E!’s Miami WAGS,’ a reality show about the wives and girlfriends of sports stars.

Prosecutors believe Voigt and Victor’s cell phones may hold important information relevant to the case because the pair had allegedly used the devices to exchange text messages during the blackmail plot.

Police said Voigt sent several of Goddard’s leaked X-rated photos to the Snapchat star's assistant as proof and gave her 24 hours to pay up the ransom.

Smoldering: Voigt (left and right), a self-described fitness model, appeared last fall on a season of E!’s Miami WAGS,’ a reality show about the wives and girlfriends of sports stars.

Voigt's defense attorney slammed the prosecutors' efforts to force her to unlock her phone as a 'fishing expedition'

Goddard is said to have contacted police about the plot and organized a fake meet-up on July 21 with Voigt and Victor.

Police officers found Voigt, 26, and Victor, 33, sitting in a car on Miami Beach waiting for the meeting as well as the phone used to allegedly threaten Goddard.

After the pair’s arrests, Goddard’s nude videos were leaked online.

In her defense, Voigt claimed that she reached out to Goddard as a friend because she, too, had once had explicit videos of herself released online without her consent.

A judge has already approved a search of the defendants’ phones, but investigators have been unable to access the devices without passcodes.

Goddard has been very vocal about the case against her accused blackmailers on social media.

'I'm not stopping until these two end up in jail,' she tweeted to her 154,000 followers on Wednesday, apparently referring to Voigt and Victor.

She added in another message, ‘Law should be if u commit a crime with your cell phone, you lose your right 2privacy on that device. Authorities should have right to search.’

Judge Johnson is expected to issue a ruling regarding the suspects' phone passwords sometime next week.

Blackmailed: Police said Voigt sent several of Goddard’s (left and right) leaked X-rated photos to the Snapchat star's assistant as proof and gave her 24 hours to pay up

The phone password issue goes to the heart of an ongoing legal, political and technological debate pitting privacy rights and civil liberties against law enforcement.

Most technology security experts, including many who have served in government, say technical efforts to provide government access to encrypted devices inevitably brings in law enforcement.

The argument has been made on-and-off since the 1990s, when the government tried and failed to force tech companies to incorporate a special chip into their products for surveillance purposes.

The matter came to a head last year when Apple put up a fight when the US government asked for help in unlocking the encrypted IPhone of Rizwan Farook, one of the San Bernardino shooters who killed 14 people and wounded 22 others in December 2015.

The government argued that the phone was a crucial piece of evidence in investigating one of the worst attacks, but Apple appealed a judge's order forcing the company to help federal officials to unlock the phone.

The government eventually dropped the case against Apple after it found an alternative way to access the phone without the tech giant’s assistance.