Salisbury woman charged with sex offenses gets probation in deal for testimony

Published 1:53 pm Friday, June 30, 2017

By Shavonne Walker

shavonne.walker@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — A Salisbury woman who last year was charged with providing a local man with recorded images of an 11-year-old girl in a bathroom and engaging in sex acts with a dog accepted a plea in exchange for testifying against the man.

Wendy Arlene Kasper, 36, was originally charged in January with felony charges of secret peeping with a recording device, possessing photographic images from secret peeping, and three counts of crimes against nature. According to court documents filed earlier this month, the court reduced the felony secret peeping charge to a misdemeanor and dismissed all of the others.

She was sentenced to 60 days in jail, which was suspended to two years of supervised probation. She was ordered to submit to a psychological evaluation by reporting to a state Department of Health and Human Services certified mental health provider. Kasper must participate in all evaluations, counseling, treatment and recommended education programs.

Investigators have said Kasper gave those images to her boyfriend, Joshua Douglas Martorelli, who remains in the county jail, in November and December. She began recording the images in April 2016. Martorelli was charged with four counts of felony third-degree sex exploitation of a minor and felony possession of a photographic image from peeping.

Kasper told Rowan County Sheriff’s detectives she had conversations with Martorelli via Tumblr, cellphone text messages and Facebook messages.

In those messages, Martorelli, 33, also of Salisbury, told Kasper to record the young girl in the bathroom. Kasper said she used her smartphone and only the girl’s face could be seen in the images. She sent the video to Martorelli in a message on Facebook.

When the detective asked Kasper why she did it, she told him because Martorelli told her to do it, according to search warrants.

Authorities also said Kasper engaged in sex acts with a dog on numerous occasions and secretly videoed a child in a bathroom for the purpose of sexual gratification for Martorelli.

Search warrants say Martorelli admitted to having conversations that were sexual in nature with Kasper on social media sites. He also told a detective he received a video of the young girl on his cellphone. He admitted receiving images and video from another woman that were sexual in nature sent via text messages, documents said.

The case was brought to the attention of law enforcement in a referral from the Rowan County Department of Social Services. A Rowan sheriff’s detective met with the victim’s father.
Contact reporter Shavonne Walker at 704-797-4253.