California has finally made its first ever conviction under the state's "revenge porn" law enacted last year. The law, which criminalizes the distribution of private nude or intimate images without permission and with the intent of causing the person in the images harm, is punishable with up to six months in jail as well as fines. But the first person to be convicted under the law is going away for a year.
On Monday, Noe Iniguez was sentenced to a year in jail after a jury found him guilty not only of violating California's revenge porn law, but also of violating two restraining orders his ex-girlfriend filed against him after the end of their four-year relationship. A judge also ordered Iniguez to serve 36 months' probation and attend domestic violence counseling; he must also stay away from his ex-girlfriend, though that was already supposed to have happened.
The Los Angeles Times reports that in 2011, Iniguez began sending his ex-girlfriend harassing text messages, prompting her to file a restraining order. Nearly two years later, he began posting derogatory comments about his ex on her employer's Facebook page, using an alias. A few months after that, Iniguez posted several nude photos of the woman on the same page, calling her a "drunk" and a "slut" and urging her employer to fire her.
Los Angeles city attorney Mike Feuer lauded Iniguez's conviction as an important step toward preventing severe emotional distress from the dissemination of revenge porn. "California’s new revenge porn law gives prosecutors a valuable tool to protect victims whose lives and reputations have been upended by a person they once trusted,” Feuer said in a statement. “This conviction sends a strong message that this type of malicious behavior will not be tolerated.”
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