ORLANDO, Fla. — A 20-year-old karate instructor pleaded not guilty Tuesday to multiple charges related to allegations that she sent nude photographs to an 11-year-old student and solicited him for sex, according to Orange County Circuit Court records.
Police arrested Stephannie Lianne Figueroa on Friday, two days after a mother called police to report she had found inappropriate messages from the karate instructor on her son's cell phone.
The boy told police Figueroa sent him about 15 nude photographs and two videos in recent months. He said she rubbed his thigh on multiple occasions but stopped when he expressed his discomfort.
Figueroa, a karate instructor at Next Gen Xtreme Martial Arts in Orlando, Florida, started teaching the boy 10 months ago. However, it wasn't until January that the two started talking outside of class, through text messages and later through the messaging app Kik.
"It quickly became flirtatious," Orlando Police Officer Jimmie Toler wrote in an arrest affidavit.
The boy's mother called police on June 15 after finding messages from the instructor on her son's cell phone. In one, she wrote that she "could not wait for another sleepover at the karate school, so she could have sex with him," according to an Orlando police report. Next Gen Xtreme Martial Arts hosted a "Ninja Night Sleepover" on May 13, according to social media accounts.
The boy told police that Figueroa had been flirting with him and sending him nude photos. He detailed multiple attempts made by his karate instructor to make their relationship physical, including one from February. Alone with the 11-year-old, Figueroa allegedly slid her hand on the boy's thigh. The boy told authorities he told the instructor to stop, and she did.
Figueroa and the boy last communicated through Kik on June 14. She invited the boy to her 21st birthday party and added that her home would be empty.
"I want to have sex with you," she wrote to the boy, according to the police report.
"OK IDC (I don't care)," he responded before falling asleep.
The 11-year-old told police he had deleted the inappropriate photos and videos sent to him by Figueroa because he was afraid his mother would discover them. Figueroa sent the boy more, however, on June 16 after Toler posed as the 11-year-old on Kik and mentioned that the images had been deleted.
She was interviewed on June 17 and admitted that she had sent images and at least one video to the boy, according to police.
"She admitted she knew what she did was wrong and was sorry for what she did," Toler wrote in the arrest affidavit.
A man who identified himself as the owner of the Next Gen Martial Arts told WFTV he hired an attorney because footage from his surveillance cameras didn't show that anything happened between the instructor and the boy. At first, the man said there were never any sleepovers at the martial arts studio. He later admitted there had been. But, he said, there was never any inappropriate contact between Figueroa and the boy.
Figueroa was released on bond. She turned 21 years old on June 19.
Figueroa was charged with attempted third-degree lewd or lascivious conduct, third-degree solicitation of a minor via computer, third-degree showing obscene material to a minor, third-degree unlawful use of a two-way communication device, third-degree child abuse and first-degree contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Cox Media Group
