Skip to main content

Florida judge orders reality TV star to unlock her phone in ‘sextortion’ case

The U.S. government may have failed in demanding Apple unlock the phones of users, but now a judge is taking a different approach — ordering the users themselves to unlock their phones. A Florida judge has ruled that two defendants in a “sextortion” case must hand over the passwords to their phones, allowing officials to search them.

In the case, reality TV stars Hencha Voigt and her ex-boyfriend Wesley Victor, were accused of threatening the release of sexually explicit images of social media star Julieanna Goddard, unless she paid a ransom of $18,000 within 24 hours.

Recommended Videos

According to Voigt and Victor, who have pleaded not guilty to the charges, demanding them to unlock the phones breaks their constitutional rights, however, Judge Charles Johnson argues that he is following the law.

“For me, this is like turning over a key to a safety deposit box,” argued the judge, according to a report from the BBC.

The defendants were arrested in July and their phones were seized after police intercepted messages sent to Goddard. Prosecutors, however, have been unable to unlock the phones to search for more evidence. As a result, they are formally asking the court to order that the defendants hand over their passwords. The defendants now have two weeks to comply with the order.

The case is somewhat reminiscent of the San Bernardino, California, shooting when the courts ordered Apple to unlock the phone of the shooters. Apple refused, arguing that it would set a dangerous precedent for future cases. The FBI then reportedly found hackers that were able to break into the phone without Apple’s help.

Both of the cases raise interesting questions surrounding data privacy and the issue has certainly sparked controversy. Newer phones, however, are encrypted in a way that even Apple and Google can’t bypass, causing the debate to shift to whether or not manufacturers should have to build so-called “backdoors” into their software, through which they could bypass a phone’s security.

Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…
Will my Apple Watch get watchOS 26? Here’s every supported model
We've got the full list of watchOS 26 supported devices - find out if you're getting the new Apple Watch update
watchOS 26 on a trio of Apple Watches

Apple announced watchOS 26 at WWDC 2025, and the new Watch update comes with a fresh new look and plenty of features. Apple has ensured there are plenty of watchOS 26 supported devices, so if you have a relatively new Watch you should get the update this year.

And no, you haven't missed a volley of updates since watchOS 11 in 2024. Apple has skipped a bunch of numbers, so instead of giving us watchOS 12 in 2025, we got watchOS 26 alongside iOS 26, macOS 26, iPadOS 26, tvOS 26 and visionOS 26.

Read more
8 key things you need to know from Apple’s WWDC 2025 event
From a fresh look and updated names, to new features, more intelligence and live translation
iOS 26, iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 shown on devices.

The WWDC 2025 keynote ran for just over an hour and a half. For those of you who don't fancy sitting through the whole presentation, we've pulled out the key things you need to know from the latest Apple event.

1. Welcome to the 26 club

Read more
WWDC 2025: Apple announces iOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26 and more
Major updates to iOS, macOS, watchOS, iPadOS, tvOS and visionOS
WWDC 2025 logo

Apple kicked off WWDC 2025 with its keynote presentation at its annual World Wide Developer's conference, and it was a bumper affair.

We were treated to a raft of updates across all of the firm's software platforms, as we were introduced to iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, macOS 26, tvOS 26 and visionOS 26.

Read more