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"Reprehensible" Revenge Porn Not A Crime In New York
By
Ben Yakas
Published Feb 20, 2014
Modified Feb 20, 2014
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Feb 20, 2014
Modified Feb 20, 2014
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A Brooklyn man who shared naked photos of his ex-girlfriend on Twitter has had all criminal charges dropped against him. "The Court concludes that defendant's conduct, while reprehensible, does not violate any of the criminal statutes under which he is charged,” wrote Criminal Court Judge Steven Statsinger in his decision this week.
BedStuy resident Ian Barber, 29, was charged with three criminal counts for uploading the pics of his ex in July 2013: aggravated harassment, dissemination of unlawful surveillance and public display of offensive sexual material, all misdemeanors. Barber initially told detectives his ex gave him permission, something she denied.
But even if there was no permission, Judge Statsinger knocked down every one of the charges: it wasn't aggravated harassment because Barber didn't directly send communications to his ex, it's not unlawful surveillance unless the pictures were obtained illegally (which hadn't been claimed), and "a subscription service like Twitter" doesn't count as public display (nudity alone also isn't considered "offensive" sexual material).
Statsinger wrote that, "This case appears to the first in which a New York court has considered criminal charges stemming from what has come to be known as 'revenge porn.'" While that's technically true—only California and New Jersey have laws on the books addressing revenge porn—there was a case last year in which a student at Colgate University was convicted for threatening to commit revenge porn. Specifically, he was found guilty of “unlawful surveillance” and “coercion” after he secretly videotaped sex with two different women and threatened to publicly release them unless they had more sex with him; he was sentenced to 1-3 years in prison.
In addition, several Albany lawmakers introduced legislation last year that would make disclosing sexually explicit images without the subject's consent a misdemeanor.
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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