The New York City borough of Staten Island’s first criminal case of “revenge porn” was tried last month in a Richmond County courtroom, and the verdict came down on the side of the male defendant.
A Staten Island jury found Tyrone Mowry not-guilty of accusations he violated a law instituted by City Hall in 2017 that makes it illegal to share intimate images online without all parties consenting.
Had he been convicted, Mowry would have faced up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
“He’s happy this whole thing is behind him,” said defense attorney Kelvin Richards. “He was working a good job, then showed up one day and was arrested.”
Following the city’s move to criminalize “revenge porn” in 2017, the state followed suit earlier this year. Nationwide, laws have been established in 46 states and Washington D.C.
A Video
Video of Mowry and his then girlfriend engaging in a sexual act was shot in 2013 at a home on VanPelt Avenue in Mariners Harbor. It was five years later that the complainant stated she was told by a friend the footage was posted online, according to a case summary published on Justia Law.
The video was “published on a pornographic website, thereby causing (the complainant) to feel degraded,” the article reads.
The defense concurred it was Mowry in the video, but presented an alternate scenario in which the video could have been re-uploaded by someone other than their client after the new law took effect.
“When you go on this website and share a video, anyone else can download and re-share as their own,” said Richards. “It’s possible that she re-shared it.”
