By VICTORIA SCHNAUFFER
Student Reporter
A Northwestern student and member of the cheer team was arrested on felony charges stemming from sexually explicit messages sent to a 13-year-old male.
Northwestern freshman Sam Sherer, Luther Okla., was formally charged April 13 in Woods County District Court with soliciting sexual conduct or communication with a minor by use of technology and, violation of an Oklahoma statute, via computer. Both charges are felonies.
Sherer was arrested April 2 in his Coronado Hall dorm room.
According to court documents, Sherer was texting and emailing sexually explicit messages to a 13-year-old male from New Mexico.
Court documents said Oscar Araujo contacted Northwestern campus police April 2. Araujo, the father of the minor, discovered messages on his family computer from Sherer to his son. Araujo identified Sherer and Northwestern by his school email account and a picture his son received.
Following the phone call Araujo forwarded Sherer’s emails dating back to Jan. 7 to Northwestern campus police. The messages between Sherer and the boy were graphic and asked for pictures from the minor, court documents said.
That day Woods County District Attorney’s Investigator Steve Tanio, campus police officers Thomas McDow and Trevor Burden, Woods County Deputy Sheriff Ethan McOsker and Dewey County Deputy Sheriff James Bailey went to Coronado Hall with a search warrant and found Sherer in his dorm along with two iPhone 4s and a Toshiba computer. All three devices had photos of the minor as well as sexually explicit messages from Sherer. The police arrested Sherer following the search.
Following Sherer’s arrest he admitted to the police during a videoed interview that he had in fact been using his iPhones and Toshiba computer to communicate with the minor for a year, court documents said. Sherer also admitted to sending explicit photos and other communications to the minor.
Sherer gave the police a handwritten statement that read, “… I know it is very wrong to talk to underage kids, and I am truly so sorry… I found out he was 13 from his girlfriend about two months ago. I kept in touch with him because he was a nice kid, and he was polite to me.”
Sherer is free on $25,000 bail. Associate Vice President for University Relations Steven Valencia said Sherer is no longer living on the Northwestern Campus and is not a current student.