Maryland Mayor Is Charged in ‘Revenge Porn’ Case

The politician of a metropolis connected Maryland’s Eastern Shore was arrested connected Monday and accused of posting nude photographs of a erstwhile romanticist spouse successful online forums utilizing sexually explicit connection and radical epithets.

Andrew Bradshaw, the politician of Cambridge, Md., was charged with 50 counts of violating a authorities instrumentality banning alleged revenge porn, oregon the nonconsensual sharing of sexually explicit photos oregon videos.

The authorities prosecutor’s bureau said Mr. Bradshaw, 32, had posted images of his erstwhile spouse without her consent successful April and May connected the website Reddit, wherever users stock and remark connected links successful subject-specific forums.

The charges against Mr. Bradshaw were the latest successful a bid of high-profile revenge porn cases successful caller years, and groups that enactment survivors of intersexual unit accidental determination has been an summation successful reports of revenge porn and different forms of online intersexual harassment during the coronavirus pandemic.

Aaron Coleman was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives past twelvemonth aft admitting that helium had harassed girls online portion helium was successful mediate school. This month, Mr. Coleman, a Democrat, was arrested and charged with home battery.

Katie Hill, a Democratic erstwhile congresswoman from California, resigned successful October 2019 aft nude photos she said had been taken of her without her consent were posted online.

And in 2017, the Defense Department opened an probe into an all-male, invitation-only Facebook radical called Marines United, successful which members shared thousands of nude and different backstage photos of Marine Corps women without their cognition oregon consent.

The Maryland authorities prosecutor, Charlton T. Howard III, said successful a charging papers that Mr. Bradshaw had posted nude photographs of his erstwhile spouse successful respective Reddit groups, oregon subreddits, and had written comments that were degrading and sexually explicit and included radical epithets.

The photos were posted by accounts that had nationalist idiosyncratic names made up of combinations of the victim’s sanction and commencement date, Mr. Howard said. She is not named successful the charging papers and is alternatively identified arsenic Victim 1.

She told the authorities astir the posts successful May, according to the charging document, and said that the lone idiosyncratic she had shared the photos with was Mr. Bradshaw. Prosecutors said they had connected the posts to an net protocol code astatine his home.

Mr. Bradshaw defeated a three-term incumbent successful a runoff predetermination successful December and was sworn successful arsenic politician of Cambridge, which has a colonisation of astir 13,000, successful January.

A lawyer for Mr. Bradshaw, Michael Belsky, did not respond to a petition for comment.

Mr. Bradshaw was arrested and released connected his ain recognizance connected Monday, according to tribunal documents. He faces a maximum punishment of 100 years successful situation and a good of up to $250,000 if convicted connected each counts.

Reddit bans users from posting nude photos without the subject’s permission. A typical said the institution was investigating the incidental and would region immoderate related contented that violated its policies.

The metropolis of Cambridge said successful a connection that its concern would not beryllium affected by the lawsuit due to the fact that the caput of its administrative concern is the metropolis manager, not the mayor.

Lisae C. Jordan, the enforcement manager of the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said the lawsuit against Mr. Bradshaw was a “vivid example” of the benignant of harassment survivors are describing arsenic reports of revenge porn and online harassment person surged during the pandemic.

“More and more, we’re seeing radical being faced with revenge porn, intersexual exploitation with online intersexual harassment,” Ms. Jordan said.

The scenery for revenge porn cases has shifted importantly implicit the past decade. In 2013, 3 states had criminalized nonconsensual pornography. Today, 48 states person done so, said Mary Anne Franks, the president and legislative and tech argumentation manager astatine the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. Maryland’s revenge porn instrumentality went into effect successful 2014.

Dr. Franks said Maryland’s law, similar others successful the United States, was excessively restrictive because, to convict someone, prosecutors indispensable beryllium that the idiosyncratic who shared the photos intended to origin superior affectional distress.

That modular tin support radical who accidental they posted photos for profit, to amended lasting successful their assemblage oregon due to the fact that they didn’t deliberation the idiosyncratic successful the photograph would care, Dr. Franks said. Prosecutors mightiness person an easier clip proving malicious intent successful Mr. Bradshaw’s case, she said, due to the fact that of the breadth and cruelty of the posts prosecutors accused him of making.

“What’s truthful troubling astir these kinds of crimes is they can’t truly beryllium undone successful immoderate way,” Dr. Franks said. “You can’t compensate a unfortunate afterward. You can’t truly springiness her backmost what she has lost.”