SANDY – An arrest warrant has been issued for an Ohio woman who investigators believe sexually extorted numerous people, including a Utah teenager.
Salon Finklea, 34, of Cleveland, Ohio, was arraigned Thursday in 3rd District Court on charges of aggravated sexual coercion of a child (a first-degree felony) and sexual exploitation of a minor (a second-degree felony).
In January 2023, according to police, Finklea contacted a 16-year-old boy from Sandy on Instagram and later convinced him to send her nude photos of himself on Snapchat. After he did so, she sent him a message saying, “If he did not pay Finklea $1,000 through CashApp, she would send all (his) nude photos to his contacts,” charging documents state.
After the boy paid her $25, Finklea demanded more money and the boy told his mother what had happened, the indictment says. Police were then called. Investigators executed several search warrants and found that Finklea’s CashApp account “had nearly 2,000 payments from a large number of senders (and included comments about a ‘scam’) in just two months.”
Police managed to reach Finklea by phone, but she refused to tell investigators her whereabouts, the indictment says.
Because Finklea is “demonstrated to be a threat to the safety and well-being of the victim and many young men in the community,” because she has “abused many victims and exploited their vulnerability,” and because the state does not have “a valid address” for her, prosecutors have requested that she be kept in custody and given the opportunity to post bail if arrested.
Officials have been warning teenagers and adults for several years not to be friends on social media with anyone they have never met in person and never to engage in sexual activity online.
