A former college track and field coach who worked at multiple colleges in the Chicago, Ill., area has pleaded guilty in connection with a scheme to trick women across the country into sending him semi-nude photos.
According to prosectors, Steve Waithe, 30, requested the cell phones of female student-athletes while working as a track coach at Northeastern University. He requested the women's devices under the pretense of filming them at practices and meets. He then covertly sent himself explicit photos of the victims that were previously saved on their phones.
According to Fox 32, Waithe previously worked as a track and field coach at several academic institutions, including Penn State University, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Tennessee and Concordia University Chicago.
By February of 2020, Waithe began perpetrating a scheme to dupe women into sending him nude or semi-nude photos of themselves by using anonymous social media accounts to contact his victims. He would then claim that he found compromising photos of them online and offer to help get the photos removed from the internet.
Under the premise of "athlete research" or a "body development" study, Waithe would email prospective victims pretending to be "Katie" or "Kathryn" and describe a phone study for athletes. He then requested information about their height, weight, body fat and diet. Waithe would then follow up, asking the women for follow-up photos to "track their progress."
Investigators identified over a dozen fake social media account used by Waithe and hundreds of photos sent from dozens of victims who thought they were participating in a study.
"Mr. Waithe’s conduct is despicable. For almost a year, he manipulated, exploited and in one case stalked young women across the county hiding behind a web of anonymized social media accounts and fabricated personas he engineered. Mr. Waithe maliciously invaded the lives of dozens of innocent victims and inflicted real trauma. He now knows no one can hide from justice – even anonymously behind a keyboard," said acting United States attorney Joshua S. Levy.
