Revenge porn: Ohio Democrat wants to punish offenders who post nude pics without consent

COLUMBUS - Katelyn Bowden remembers the exact date she was reduced from being a 31-year-old mother of two to nothing more than a nude image shared on the Internet.

On May 22, 2017, Bowden, of Youngstown, received a message from an acquaintance on Facebook, telling her that a nude picture previously stored on Bowden's ex-boyfriend's cellphone was being shared online. Bowden later discovered that another acquaintance had stolen the ex-boyfriend's phone to post the image.

Boyden had the person's confession in a text message. But when she took that evidence to police, she learned there was nothing law enforcement could do. What the person had done was not a crime in Ohio. They could prosecute the person for stealing the cellphone but that was it.

"I was told that to the state of Ohio, a cellphone had more rights than me, a human being," Bowden said.

Sen. Joe Schiavoni, a Democrat from the Youngstown area who is also running for governor, wants to ban revenge porn and image-based violence. Under current law, angry ex-partners who post images online or those who hack cellphones for pictures face no penalties.

His bill, which has yet to be introduced, would punish those who post nude images without the subject's consent. The offense would become a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Nationwide, 38 states and Washington D.C. have some penalty for revenge porn.

Schiavoni introduced a similar bill in 2016, but it saw little movement in the GOP-controlled Legislature.

In the new version, Schiavoni lowered the penalty for repeated offenses from a felony, which could result in prison time, to a misdemeanor. Schiavoni said he still believes the offense should be a felony, but thought a misdemeanor was a good first step.

Schiavoni's proposal also would provide protections for victims, such as making it easier to sue the offender, preventing students from losing scholarships or grants because of images posted without their consent and offering paid leave for victims who need to attend court hearings or doctors' appointments because of the offense.

Without a specific ban in Ohio, police have gotten creative to punish perpetrators. Investigators sometimes charge the offense as telecommunication harassment, child pornography or even extortion, but that is difficult to prove.

Another problem? Defining where the crime occurred for a court, said Dan Kalk, detective sergeant with the Aurora Police Department in northeast Ohio.

"This law is going to help us a lot," Kalk said.

Last April, an Anderson Township doctor settled a lawsuit involving sexual relationships with three former patients. One of the women posted at least one sexually explicit video of the doctor, Terrance McCoy, on a YouTube channel in 2013. "(S)he knew it was wrong and did not have an excuse for showing it,” records showed.

Even with a law, removing images from the Internet could still be challenging, said Bowden, who now leads B.A.D.A.S.S. or Babes Against Demeaning or Abusive Selfie Sharing. The group has worked to take down more than 1,000 pictures.

Reputable sites, such as Facebook, will quickly remove the images and, in some cases, police the problem themselves. Other sites are less willing to remove the pictures.