NEWS

Sexualized breast-feeding videos may lead to life sentence

Prosecutors say the 31-year-old faces 45 additional counts

Karl Etters
Democrat staff writer

A Tallahassee piano teacher arrested in October after the discovery of what investigators say are sexualized breast-feeding videos is facing multiple other charges and a potential mandatory life sentence.

Leigh Felten remains in the Leon County Jail after she was denied bond Monday. She has been there since her arrest in October.

Felten faces charges of capital sexual battery, lewd and lascivious molestation, promoting sexual performance by a child and possession with intent to promote child pornography.

Leigh Felten

The dozens of videos, which investigators say Felten was selling online, include footage of her breast-feeding a toddler. The videos sometimes involved Felten rubbing oil on herself and the child and other sexual acts, according to court documents.

The 31-year-old faces multiple additional capital sexual battery and other charges after Tallahassee Police investigators discovered 45 other videos on her computer, said Assistant State Attorney Lorena Vollrath-Bueno. Charging documents are being prepared, she said.

Vollrath-Bueno said the charges against Felten were serious enough that prosecutors pushed for her not be released from jail.

Felten faces a mandatory life sentence if convicted.

Officers were tipped off to Felten when a Wisconsin man downloaded several videos and paid for them using a PayPal account.

A lieutenant with the Crawford County, Wisconsin, Sheriff’s Office said the video “was clearly not done for the purpose of education or artistic display. Based on the content, and the fact it is being sold by Felten, it is clear this video is for sexual purposes,” court documents said.

Her trial has been set to start Sept. 19.

Felten's attorney John Eagen said he seeking to suppress the videos as evidence.

But Vollrath-Bueno said the first-person videos could be the most powerful evidence against Felten.

“It is going to be one of those cases that the proof will be in the videos we will show to the jury,” she said.

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.