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On Monday, Sept. 18, the US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York announced that now 22-year-old Lorenzo Arana, known online as “Lorenzo Blake,” was sentenced to spend 17 years in prison for distributing child pornography and bullying a young girl into attempting suicide.
The Island Park resident amassed quite a following on social media platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, the Attornery’s Office said, which he used to harass and exploit underage girls, including the child whom his conviction is directly related to.
In September 2020, Arana solicited sexually explicit content from the then-12-year-old girl, identified in the case only as “Jane Doe #2,” and later spread the videos to her friends and classmates as retaliation for not answering his phone calls.
Arana posted about the retaliation on social media, confirming that he was doing it to “expose” the girl for her not responding to him.
A text message recovered from the girl’s phone showed that he told the victim to kill herself.
Another text from Arana, when he had been informed of the girl’s suicidal thoughts because of the harassment, read, “I don’t care…she deserves it.”
The victim was found unconscious in her bed when officers performed a wellness check on her.
In her bed also sat loose pills, a pill bottle, a gun, and a suicide note.
The girl survived.
“It is particularly evil for a person to prey upon young people and exploit their innocence,” said Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent-in-Charge Ivan J. Arvelo.“But to do so to the point where a victim sees no reason to live is beyond reprehensible,” he stated, adding that Arana "got what he deserved today for his actions.”
The US Attorney’s Office noted that Arana had a pattern of threatening to release his followers’ private information, whether it be a phone number or sexual content he solicited from them, should they do anything the man deemed “unacceptable.”
Said “unacceptable” behavior ranged from denying Arana’s calls to refusing to send more nude pictures or sexual content.
What is left online of Arana’s social media history appears to be fraught with controversy.
Though most of his accounts have been taken down, his inactive TikTok account remains, where he has over 16 thousand followers.
The hashtag of his name has over 16 million views, with many of the most popular videos showcasing additional, alleged screenshots of Arana’s exploitative behavior, using racist language, and even faking his own death.
In November 2022, he pleaded guilty to the charges against him.
Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, encouraged parents to “please talk to your children about the dangers of communicating online with strangers who may exploit them and to seek help from a trusted adult if they are being threatened.”
If you or someone you know is in a crisis or feeling suicidal, the 988 Suicide and Crisis line is available 24/7 and can be reached online here by phone at 988 or 1-800-273-8255.
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