MARSHALL COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Tennessee man is taking federal action after someone sent explicit photos of him to his family and neighbors as Christmas cards.
The Marshall County man is now suing for more than $1 million in damages under a new federal “revenge porn” law.
According to the federal lawsuit, an angry husband in Massachusetts took it to another level when he found sexually explicit images of another man on his wife’s phone.
“This is not just ‘I took a picture I’m mad at my ex-husband, I’m mad at my ex-girlfriend and I’m sending something on just because I’m in a fit of piqué.’ This actually took a lot of forethought and planning to do this particular action,” Davidson County Attorney Doni Porteous explained.
The suit alleges the Massachusetts husband discovered his wife was having an affair with the man in the photos. It goes on to say the husband made 11 Christmas cards with the explicit photos of the Marshall County man and mailed them to his family, neighbors and workplace in Tennessee.
“This is above and beyond you found these images on your wife’s phone and you wanted to send them out. He really made a significant effort to try and humiliate this individual by distributing that content,” said Porteous.
The actions fall under President Biden’s new Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2022, just weeks after it came online.
“He may have consented to create these particular pictures or photos with someone or for someone, but he didn’t give consent for those to be further distributed and that’s the action here is that someone else has taken it upon themselves to distribute these videos, which turns it into a criminal action in Tennessee, or in this case, its a federal civil action. He is filing for 10 incidents at $150,000 per incident which is a lot of money. You know, will the courts hold up to that? Will there be a settlement? At this point, we don’t know. We don’t know what the outcomes look like because there have only been a hand full of these lawsuits filed.”
Tennessee has a criminal statute against “revenge pornography.” Porteous’s research during her time at Nashville School of Law helped in updating the state legislation just last year; however, she says it does not address a third party’s actions like the new federal law.
