Salt Lake woman charged with obscene revenge against teen

SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake woman is accused of seeking revenge against a 13-year-old girl by Photoshopping the girl's school picture on the body of a naked woman engaged in bestiality and posting fliers with the altered image around the girl's middle school.

Danette Stark, 37, is charged with 18 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, according to documents filed Thursday in 3rd District Court.

A custodian found a flier in the seventh-grade girls' bathroom at Salt Lake's Northwest Middle School, 1730 W. 1700 North, on May 25. The assistant principal ultimately found 18 of the fliers with the victim's head on the body of a naked woman shown in an act of bestiality, according to the court documents.

The bottom of the flier listed several profane words and derogatory terms.

School officials reviewed a surveillance video taken from the middle school on the day before fliers were found and saw Stark enter the same bathroom, according to charges.

The 37-year-old Stark, who lives in the school's boundaries, admitted to police she retrieved the photo of the naked female online and that the picture includes the 13-year-old victim's face, according to the court documents. She also told police she made about 30 fliers at her workplace and placed them in the girls' bathroom and "maybe three or four" fliers in students' lockers.

Stark told police she created and distributed the fliers to retaliate for perceived wrongs by the girl.

A warrant has been issued for Stark's arrest and bail set at $50,000. Sexual exploitation of a minor is a second-degree felony in Utah and carries a penalty of up to one to 15 years in state prison.

Calls made to school officials for comment were not returned by press time.

e-mail: lgroves@desnews.com