Revenge Porn Victim Awarded $600K

MACOMB COUNTY, MI — Revenge pornography isn’t going to be tolerated in Michigan. That appears to be the message as Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Diane Druzinski ordered a 22-year-old Chesterfield Township man on Monday to pay $600,000 to his ex-girlfriend for posting a sex video of the two of them on Facebook.

It’s second six-figure award given as a result of a revenge-porn case in less than a year. In August, an Oakland County Circuit Court judge ordered a Macomb County man to pay $500,000 to his Oakland County ex-girlfriend for posting nude photos of her, the Macomb Daily reported.

Druzinski awarded the judgement to a 23-year-old Portage woman following a judgment hearing Monday, the newspaper reported.

“It is dangerous, stupid, and costly for ex-boyfriends to engage in revenge pornography,” the woman’s attorney, Kyle Bristow, told the Macomb Daily. “I have proven that it is possible to hunt down revenge pornographers via subpoenas and discovery requests which can be utilized when civil actions are commenced, and I have shown that significant money judgments can and will be awarded when perpetrators are identified.”

The Macomb County Circuit Court judge noted the woman’s “mental anguish” during the hearing. Druzinski said the video could resurface on the internet and affect the woman’s future jobs and relationships, the Macomb Daily reported.

The judgment permits the woman to garnish the Chesterfield Township man’s bank accounts and paychecks, intercept annual tax refunds, and have property seized and sold at auction, the newspaper reported. The man also ordered to immediately destroy and not republish the pornographic video to anyone else.

If he violates the injunctive order, he can be held in criminal contempt of court and punished with jail time and fines, Bristow told the Macomb Daily. He said his client has undergone counseling as a result of the incident.

Photo by North Charleston via Flickr Commons