A 19-year-old Lucas woman was arrested after accidentally posting a explicit video to her Snapchat story. On Sept. 21, Mikaila Johanson was taken into custody by Osceola Police on a warrant arrest for one count of sexual exploitation of a minor - cause to engage in act and five counts of purchase/possess depiction of minor in sex act - first offense.
According to court documents, Osceola Police received a call on Aug. 16 from an Osceola resident who reported his daughter had seen a video on Snapchat of Johanson engaged in a sex act with a 15-year-old boy; a second witness also reported seeing the video.
Upon talking with the witnesses, it was found that the video was no longer viewable on Snapchat. Officers took the information for Johanson’s Snapchat account and sent a preservation letter for her account to Snapchat.
On Sept. 4, a search warrant was executed at 608 Vine St., Lucas. At that time, Johanson admitted to officers that she had accidentally posted a video to her Snapchat story of her and the victim engaged in sexual intercourse.
Johanson stated that he had asked her to record them and send him the video, but she accidentally sent it to her story instead. Johanson said her prior Snapchat account had been banned by the social media app and she had created a new account. She further stated that she had been communicating with the victim via text messaging, Snapchat and Tinder, and had sent him other nude and obscene photographs of herself.
Johanson admitted to using an iPhone 15, which was seized as part of the search warrant and stored in the Osceola Police Department evidence locker; she did provide her passcode to the phone. Johanson also admitted to officers to knowing that the victim was 15; the age of consent in Iowa is 16.
A search warrant was granted Sept. 5 to perform an extraction of the cell phone. An examination of the phone performed Sept. 8 found the prior mentioned video, as well as four other videos of child exploitation. One of the videos saved from Snapchat to the phone Aug. 30 was of the minor male showing his genitalia. The other three videos dated Aug. 16 showed Johanson performing and engaging in sexual acts with the minor.
A warrant for Johanson’s arrest was issued Sept. 18, and served Sept. 21 at 1320 S. Ridge Road with cash or surety bond set at $50,000. A temporary no contact order was issued Sept. 22. A preliminary hearing was held Sept. 30, and on Sept. 29 trial information was filed by Clarke County Attorney Johanna Olson. According to court documents, Johanson is now facing two counts of a Class “B” felony offenses and five counts of Class “D” offenses.
Arraignment is scheduled for 9 a.m. Oct. 16. at the Clarke County Courthouse.