Two former staff members were charged in the circulation of nude photos and videos of a congresswoman and her husband. Federal prosecutors and the U.S. Capitol Police made the announcement Thursday in Washington. Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett confirmed that her privacy had been invaded as private pictures of her and her husband surfaced last year.
"Last year, my privacy was invaded, which was followed by an organized smear campaign and defamatory press reports concerning both me and my family," Plaskett said Thursday. "We continue to be saddened by the damage we suffered as a result of those egregious acts.”
Juan R. McCullum was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of cyberstalking, while Dorene Browne-Louis, was indicted on two counts of obstruction of justice. The charging documents state that both defendants worked for the same official, who is identified in the filings by the initials S.P. which has come to be confirmed as Stacey Plaskett.
Some of Plaskett's personal photos surfaced on the internet a year ago, in July 2016, conveniently right before a primary election.
According to the indictment, McCullum worked from April 2015 until June 2016 in the House member’s legislative office in Washington. Browne-Louis worked in the same office from January 2015 until April 2016.
Also, according to the indictment, McCullum offered in March 2016 to help take the House member’s malfunctioning, password-protected iPhone to a local Apple store to be repaired. Though he was not given permission to take, copy, or distribute any of the contents of the iPhone, photographs of the congresswoman surfaced that July.
After McCullum left Plaskett's staff, he allegedly created a Hotmail account and a Facebook account under a fake name to post the pictures and encouraged people to share them. The indictment also alleged that McCullum texted Browne-Louis as early as July 2, 2016, and emailed her some of the material. Federal investigators soon launched an investigation and alleged that Browne-Louis deleted McCullum’s texts from her phone and gave false and misleading statements to them and the grand jury.
Even though these haters prayed on her downfall, Plaskett ultimately came out on top. Despite the leaking and distribution of the photos, Plaskett was overwhelmingly reelected to her second House term last year after winning an August Democratic primary with 85 percent of the vote.
While McCullum was undoubtedly wrong for invading the congresswoman's privacy, as well as Browne-Louis for lying, do you think that the two staffers deserve jail time? How do you think cases like this should be handled? Let us know in the comments below.
