Karate instructor accused of propositioning 11-year-old student for sex released from jail

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A 20-year-old woman was arrested last week on allegations she solicited an 11-year-old boy for sex acts, police said.

According to an arrest report, Stephannie Figueroa, 20, who works at Next Gen Xtreme Martial Arts in Orlando, met the boy at the karate school on Goldenrod Road.

Police became involved when the mother of the victim said last Wednesday at about 6:30 a.m., she found messages from Figueroa on her son’s cellphone.

The suspect and victim were using the messaging app Kik, police said.

Figueroa allegedly told the boy she "could not wait for another sleep over at the karate school, so she could have sex with him in a hard way,” an Orlando police report said.

The boy’s mother called police at about 10:09 p.m. the same day, the report said.

The boy admitted the karate instructor had been flirting with him and sending him photos of her private parts as well as full body nude photos, police said.

Figueroa is accused of telling the boy she liked him, but did not make any advances until February, the report said.

During that time, while the suspect and victim were alone, Figueroa began sliding her hand on the boy’s thigh, police said. The boy said he told the instructor to stop and she did, the report said.

She also told the boy she wanted to cuddle, but never did during the sleepover, police said.

Police said the two most recently communicated through Kik last Tuesday when she invited him over to her 21st birthday party and said no one would be home.

“I want to have sex with you,” she messaged the boy, according to the police report.

“OK IDC (I don’t care),” he responded, before falling asleep.

Investigators said during the last three months, Figueroa sent 15 naked photos to the 11-year-old.

A man who identified himself as the owner of the Next Gen Martial Arts told Eyewitness News he hired an attorney because footage from his surveillance cameras didn’t show anything happened between the instructor and the boy.

At first, the man said there were never any sleepovers, but later admitted there had been.

There was never any inappropriate contact between Figueroa and the boy, he said.

When police asked to see the messages and images, the boy’s mother went through his phone “and was unable to locate neither the Kik messages she had seen in the morning, nor any of the photographs described above,” the report said.

Figueroa was arrested and charged with making an obscene telephone call.

Cox Media Group