Court docs: Franklin man in extortion case threatens to release photos

Credit: Darke County Jail

Credit: Darke County Jail

Charges were filed Monday against a Franklin man accused of threatening to release compromising photos of a Darke County man’s daughter if he did not pay him.

Joshua Herald, 36, is charged with extortion in Darke County Municipal Court after he was arrested Friday in a Darke County Sheriff’s Office sting.

A Patterson Twp. man reported to the sheriff’s office shortly after noon Friday that he had been getting text messages for the past two weeks from various numbers demanding money and threatening to release photos of his adult daughter, according to an affidavit.

On the day the man reported the threats, the unknown suspect sent a photo of the daughter to him. Detectives had the man arrange to meet the suspect and gave him $1,000 for the transaction that took place in a Greenville Walmart parking lot, court records stated.

Detectives watched as a black Ford F-150 pulled in at 5:04 p.m. A man, later identified as Herald, got out, met the victim and took the money before getting back in the pickup and leaving. Detectives followed the truck and relayed its location to waiting deputies and Greenville police officers, who pulled over the truck in the 1100 block of Russ Road, according to a release issued Friday from the sheriff’s office.

Herald was found in possession of the money supplied by the sheriff’s office and was arrested, the release said.

He admitted to deputies that he used the photo of the victim’s daughter to try to get money from him, the affidavit stated.

Herald remains in the Darke County Jail.

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