Crime & Safety

Temecula Art Dealer Will Plead Guilty to Federal Stalking, Extortion Charges

The owner of White Galleries at 41493 Margarita Road in Temecula was charged by federal prosecutors with two counts of stalking, carrying a potential penalty of 10 years in federal prison.

The owner of a Temecula art gallery has agreed to plead guilty to federal stalking charges for attempting to extort an art publisher and its employees by creating disparaging websites and sending threatening messages demanding money to take them down, according to court papers obtained Thursday.

Jason White's plea agreement comes a day after federal prosecutors in Los Angeles charged him with two counts of stalking, carrying a potential penalty of 10 years in federal prison.

A date for White to formally enter his plea has not been set.

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White, 43, was arrested last month after an alleged six-month campaign of electronic and telephonic harassment of art world professionals from whom White reportedly sought hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Prosecutors contend that at one point, White targeted his former employer, an art publisher, as well as his supervisor at the publisher's company.

Find out what's happening in Temeculawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

After creating derogatory websites in the publisher's name, White allegedly sent threatening text messages to the art publisher, the publisher's son, and the former supervisor, according to court papers.

Prosecutors allege that in a text message to his former supervisor, White threatened to find her family and make her pay with "fear, anguish, and pain."

On several occasions, according to court documents, White obtained pictures of her child and sent pictures of the child to the victim with comments such as "it will be very unfortunate if something was to happen to him."

During this time, White continued to demand payment in exchange for taking down the websites he had created and made it known to these victims that their business reputation would be ruined and that his websites would forever show up anytime anyone searched for their name on the Internet, prosecutors contend.

In January, White allegedly went to the Facebook page of a well-known artist represented by the art publisher and posted a picture of himself, along with a statement that he was focusing on the artist's wife and child.

White allegedly wrote that he would be waiting in the bushes to "kneecap a child." Through the Facebook message, White told the artist, "your children are my end game," prosecutors allege in court papers.

According to the FBI, White has felony convictions for possessing controlled substances and unlawfully possessing a weapon, as well as a misdemeanor conviction for fraud.

The case against White was investigated by the FBI's Art Crime Team.

—City News Service.


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