He saw the 15-year-old Gilbert girl in a photo with a volleyball teammate. They made small talk over Instagram. He told her he was rich, the teen’s mother said. 

Days later, he sexually assaulted her, the teen’s mother said.

He was indicted by a Maricopa County grand jury in July on one count of sexual conduct with a minor. Now, 23-year-old Tanner Mennenga, of Mesa, has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and faces sentencing in that case.

A second teen later stepped forward, unknown to the first girl. She reported her encounter to another police agency, and an investigation did not occur. 

Then a social-media storm struck. A Twitter post on Dec. 30 by another woman asked users to report Mennenga’s Instagram account because of behavior they described as predatory. It received more than 700 retweets. 

Subsequent online posts alleged that he wielded influence on social media to lure girls into uncomfortable, sexual situations.

And after the social posts, a third person stepped forward to police with allegations, which now are being investigated by law enforcement. 

Mennenga declined comment through his attorney, Kyle Reedy. 

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The Gilbert girl’s family has remained quiet about the case on social media, but they are following the posts as they ready for Mennenga’s sentencing, scheduled for Jan. 23 in Maricopa County Superior Court. Because other girls have shared their stories, the Gilbert girl’s mom says she no longer is comfortable with the plea agreement.

The mom is not being named to protect the victim’s identity. The Arizona Republic does not identify victims of sexual assault.

The Twitter onslaught is seemingly part of the #MeToo movement and a deeper national reckoning over sexual assault, abuse and harassment that began with allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein.

Allegations of sexual abuse 

Mennenga, who attended Mountain View High School, lives in Mesa and works as a social-media entrepreneur. He pleaded guilty in the Gilbert case in December 2017 to a lesser charge of child abuse with sexual motivation, according to court records.

The teen’s mom said Mennenga sexually assaulted her daughter two days after messaging the 15-year-old on Instagram in October 2016. She said Mennenga told her daughter that he was 19, not in his 20s. 

“He’s cute and he looks younger than he is,” the mom said. 

The mom said she later learned the teen and Mennenga met the next day, a Saturday. He pushed her to wear a bikini — his sister’s — and change in his car, the mom said. 

The next day, Mennenga assaulted her in the backseat of his car, the mom said, penetrating her with his fingers and rubbing his body against hers. She said her daughter told him “no” and tried to push him away. She said she thought her daughter was delivering cookies with friends at the time.

“Afterwards she was just in complete shock,” the mom said. “She’d never kissed a boy.” 

The daughter told her mother that he continually apologized on the drive home, the mother said.

The next day, the teen was suspended from school for the first time for missing classes, according to her mother. The story began to trickle out about the girl, who had been a “zombie” that week, her mother said. The parents filed a police report. Eventually, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office sought an indictment against Mennenga. 

The year between the assault and action in court was “rough” as the family grappled with the aftermath of what happened to the teen, her mother said. 

“The things we do intimately are about choice. And he took that choice away from her,”  the teen’s mom said.

Alleged abuse in church parking lot 

The second teen who filed a police report said she met Mennenga over Instagram in August 2017, nearly a year after he had met the teen in Gilbert. He had thousands of followers on Instagram and they connected over Messenger through a friend, she said. She is active in her Instagram community of freelance models and photographers and is a freelance model herself. She is 19. 

They were scheduled to go on a photo shoot together, but he told her he wanted to meet first and get to know each other, she told The Republic.

When she arrived at the burger place, he directed her to his car. She said she waffled but got in. After all, she said, he seemed like a nice guy and was a part of her Instagram community. 

They ended up in the parking lot of a church where she said he climbed on top of her, rubbed himself against her and groped her. She said she told him she was not that type of girl. She said she was frozen. The spot was isolated. She said her clothes stayed on. 

Afterward, she tried to brush the incident off as an awkward hook-up. It wasn’t until she called the National Sexual Assault hotline run by the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) that she came to grips with the idea that the man had crossed a line.

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She said she filed a police report with Mesa police but chose not to pursue charges. 

Detective Steve Berry, a spokesman for Mesa police, confirmed the report was filed. He said in an email that because she did not pursue charges, the patrol officer would not have checked into whether there were other pending cases. 

Victoria Washington, a criminal defense attorney in the Phoenix area, said it would have taken unrealistic amounts of time and manpower for Mesa law enforcement to figure out that there were two reports, theirs and one in Gilbert. 

Had Gilbert detectives believed that Mennenga’s behavior was likely to repeat itself, Washington said that department should have told neighboring police departments. 

This week, after the renewed interest in Mennenga, Mesa police brought the young woman in for another interview. She declined to move forward with charges, Berry said.

She said she didn’t because she was unsure if there was enough evidence to press charges. Even if the case made it to court, she wrote in a text message to The Republic, a trial could turn into a he-said, she-said situation. 

A few weeks after the incident and months before the Twitter storm, she said she posted about the experience on her Instagram story, a Snapchat-like feature where the post only stays up for 24 hours. The September post was a warning to other women, and several responded, she said.

She only learned of the existence of the Gilbert case when The Republic contacted her as posts about Mennenga on Twitter mounted. 

A third report, also filed with Mesa police, of alleged “sexual conduct with a minor”  was filed in connection with Mennenga Jan. 7, Berry said. 

What’s next

Mennenga has vanished from Instagram. 

On LinkedIn, he lists his job as owner of “TMGrowth.” His Facebook page, now removed or hidden, had linked back to a site, tmgrowth.com, promising Instagram growth and increased online engagement for individuals and businesses. An “influencer package” from the site costs $200 and the “business package” cost $500.

Influencers, sometimes with thousands of followers on Instagram, can often get paid by brands to promote products or services. One influencer marketing company, mediakix, estimates that advertisers are spending more than a billion dollars a year on Instagram.

In Gilbert, two parents are left wondering what mental shrapnel could be hanging over their daughter, now 16, from the assault.

“It was such a tricky situation,” the mother said. “She chose to be in it, but she didn’t know what she was getting herself into.”

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According to the plea agreement, Mennenga’s sentence will be set in court. It could range from 1½ years in custody to probation, according to a court document. He also faces 10 years on supervised probation, and registering with the Arizona Department of Public Safety as a sex offender.

Amanda Jacinto, a spokeswoman with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, said other possible victims likely cannot be configured into the existing case against Mennenga. The case is too far along.

“Those need to be investigated by law enforcement. Once law enforcement has a case they want to submit for reviewing, we’d be happy to review it,” she said.

The teen’s mom is hoping for a delay in sentencing, for a change in the plea agreement.

“We’re not comfortable,” she said of the plea deal.

If anything, she hopes any young women similarly victimized will be motivated to come forward, knowing they are not alone.

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