The former executive director of Portsmouth-based suicide prevention organization Be Great For Nate was found not guilty of indecent solicitation of a minor by a jury on Wednesday.

Steven Peterson, who was 26 at the time of the incident, was accused of asking a 15-year-old Portsmouth High School student to send a photo of the student’s genitals to another minor through a text exchange in January 2022. The victim’s mother contacted the police when she discovered the texts and Peterson was arrested that March.

Peterson’s defense, led by attorney John MacDonald argued that the conversation, in which Peterson claimed to have seen a nude photo of the student and pressed him for details about his genitals, was a ruse to get the student to confirm or deny a rumor he had heard that the student had sent nude photos of himself before. The student had been a member of Be Great For Nate, and Peterson and MacDonald argued the conversation was a part of his duties as a mentor to these students.

However, MacDonald said the prosecution misinterpreted one of the texts. In the text, Peterson tells the student to “Send it to [student’s friend],” as a final way to trick the student into confessing that he had sent nude photos in the past, MacDonald said.

“When you looked at the entire text conversation and read it in context, that’s what it was about,” MacDonald told the Newport Daily News. “The conversation succeeded, the minor confirmed he was not sending photos… but unfortunately, that one line, ‘send it to,’ was interpreted literally by the police and ultimately the Attorney General’s office, and we had to deal with this charge.”

MacDonald also argued that the police had jumped too quickly on arresting Peterson following interviews with the mother and her son.

“The police interviewed the minor, they interviewed the mom, they reviewed the text history and boom, without ever attempting to question Steve about, what was this about, what was your purpose,” MacDonald said. “They charged Steve with solicitation within a few hours of talking to the mom and son. It was an absolute rush to charge him.”

The arrest ultimately led to the dissolution of Be Great For Nate, the nonprofit organization dedicated to suicide prevention founded in 2019 by Rick Bruno, whose son Nathan committed suicide in 2018. Peterson was removed from Be Great For Nate following his arrest in March 2022 and the organization would suspend activities and indefinitely close its Portsmouth office a month later. It also led to the shuttering of Portsmouth High School’s Every Student Initiative, a student group started by Nathan’s friends which Peterson helped build and served as program director.

“The consequences of rushing to a criminal charge were devastating for such an important program like Be Great For Nate,” MacDonald said.

Despite the impact of the arrest, MacDonald said there are no plans to take legal action against the police department, the officers of which he said believed they were doing their jobs. As for Peterson, MacDonald said it is up to him whether he will return to the social work field. He voluntarily surrendered his clinical social worker license following his arrest and has since moved out of state.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Be Great For Nate leader found not guilty of soliciting a minor