INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A Pike Township teacher is on administrative leave after his arrest in connection to a revenge porn investigation.
The allegations against teacher Jason Hohlt come from an ex-girlfriend who says Hohlt was sending nude photos of her to her family.
Hohlt faces a Class A misdemeanor charge of distribution of an intimate image.
According to court documents, the incident happened in July.
Police say Hohlt was sending the victim’s family nude photos of her via social media. In one instance, Hohlt sending nude photos of the victim to her brother via Facebook messenger.
A new law that harshens the punishment for revenge porn cases went into effect in July.
“An A misdemeanor for the first offense, a level 6 felony for the second offense and then a companion and then a companion bill that went along with that includes a $10,000 fine,” said Republican State Sen. Aaron Freeman, who authored the bill.
“We really wanted to send the message that this kind of behavior shouldn’t be tolerated in Indiana,” Freeman said.
The victim says Hohlt continually called her. And when she blocked his number, he would call from another number.
Freeman says he spent years writing this new law in hopes of protecting victims in a digital age.
“To give folks hopefully some protection and certainly at least a recourse, somewhere to go, some action to take if they find themselves the victim of this kind of thing,” says Freeman.
News 8 received this statement from Pike Township schools in regards to Hohlt’s allegations.
“This morning we received a media inquiry indicating that an arrest warrant was issued for an educator at Pike High School. We began an investigation and took immediate action. The educator indicated that he was not aware of the warrant and cooperated fully with our Pike Police Department. He is in IMPD custody and has been placed on administrative leave. We have no reason to believe that any of our students were impacted by the educator’s alleged behavior.
METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PIKE TOWNSHIP
The school’s website lists Hohlt as a social studies teacher and the coach for the boys and girls golf teams.
(Photo provided by WISH-TV.)
