How Maryland’s “Revenge Porn” Law Can Land You in Serious Trouble

Maryland is one of a number of states that have adopted “Revenge Porn” laws in recent years. This commonly refers to the practice of posting sexually explicit photographs of a person to social media without their consent. For example, if your dating partner breaks up with you, and you decide to text naked pictures of them to your friends to “get back” at them, that would be considered revenge porn. This is classified as a crime in Maryland, and you could actually face jail time and a fine if convicted.

Appellate Court Reverses Protective Order in Dispute Over Ex-Husband’s Posting of Ex-Wife’s Photos to Tumblr

Revenge porn may also be cited as grounds for issuing a protective order in the context of family law. That is to say, revenge porn is considered a form of “abuse” and a judge can issue an injunction to put a stop to it. At the same time, the revenge porn law does require proof that the party who distributed the images possessed “intent to harm or harass” the alleged victim. The evidence must also show that the person claiming revenge porn had a “reasonable expectation that the image would remain private.”

A recent unreported decision from the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, Leister v. Leister, demonstrates the importance of both of these requirements. In this case, a former wife sought a protective order against her former husband. During the marriage, the former husband often took “explicit photos and videos of and with” the former wife. Both parties consented to the creation of these images. Indeed, at one point the former wife told the former husband he could even post some of the images to his Reddit account “provided that her face was not displayed in any of the pictures.”

However, the former husband went beyond this consent and decided to also post explicit photos of the former wife to his Tumblr account. These images also did not actually show the former wife’s face.

After the parties separated and the former wife learned of the Tumblr posts, she demanded the former husband remove “all of the pictures and videos of her from the Internet.” The former husband later testified in court that he “made a concerted effort to remove the images,” but some of them still had not been removed.

The trial court issued a protective order despite finding the former husband lacked any intent to harm or harass the former wife. The Court of Special Appeals said that was legal error and reversed the protective order. As noted above, Maryland law explicitly requires proof of intent to harm or harass. Furthermore, the trial court failed to resolve the apparent contradiction between the former wife’s claim she had an expectation of privacy in the posted images and her prior decision to consent to their posting on Reddit.

Contact Prince George’s County, Maryland, Family Law Attorney Robert Castro Today

This article has been provided by the Law Office of Robert Castro. For more information or questions contact our office to speak to an experienced lawyer at (301) 705-5253.

Source:

https://www.courts.state.md.us/sites/default/files/unreported-opinions/1061s20.pdf