Jennifer Dempsey, age 35, who posed as a teenager and had multiple separate sexual encounters with two underage males, has been ordered to serve a term of 17 years in the Arizona Department of Correction. Under the terms of the sentence Dempsey will also be placed on lifetime probation and register as a sex offender.
On December 11, 2012, Phoenix Police were contacted by a woman who reported that her 14-year-old son was exchanging nude photographs on his Facebook account with someone who identified as a 15-year-old girl named “Becky” or “Deeva Dempsey.” The woman’s boyfriend also observed the boy meeting with this person in a park and became concerned that she looked much older than she claimed. The boy’s mother invited “Becky” to her house and immediately noticed that she had “crow’s feet” around her eyes. She was also wearing a “hoodie” and appeared to be wearing a wig. During a subsequent forensic interview, the boy disclosed that the previous November, after he met “Becky” online, she took him to what she claimed was her aunt’s residence where they had sex. Photographs later identified “Becky” to be Jennifer Dempsey, who lived at the address where the incident took place. Dempsey was then interviewed by Police, but denied any contact with the victim.
On February 2, 2013, police received a separate report from a mother of a 16-year-old boy alleging that a 35-year-old woman claiming to be 16 was having a sexual relationship with her son. The two had met in September 2012 after a youth group meeting at a Phoenix church and developed a relationship over the next few months. During a forensic interview, the boy disclosed that the woman identified herself as “Jayden” and that the two of them went on several dates during which they would have sex. “Jayden” was identified as Dempsey through her Facebook account. Five days after receiving the report, police arrested her at her home.
On February 14, 2013, the Grand Jurors of Maricopa County indicted Jennifer Dempsey on two Class 2 Felony counts of Sexual Conduct with a Minor, a Dangerous Crime Against Children, and five Class 6 Felony Counts of Sexual Conduct with a Minor. She subsequently waived her right to a trial and agreed to plead guilty to Molestation of a Child, Attempted Sexual Conduct with a Minor Under the Age of 15, and Sexual Conduct with a Minor.