CAMBRIDGE, MD. – A Maryland mayor has been arrested and charged with distributing revenge pornography online, prosecutors announced Monday.
Andrew Bradshaw, the 32-year-old mayor of Cambridge on Maryland’s East Coast, is accused of posting nude photos of a woman he is no longer romantically involved with.
Bradshaw posted the photos using multiple Reddit accounts he created using variations of the woman’s name and date of birth, according to a news release from the State Prosecutor’s Office. The photos were captioned with racial and sexual profanities and were posted in April and May, authorities said.
Bradshaw was arrested Monday and charged with 50 counts of distributing revenge pornography and being released with his own recognition, according to online court records. Bradshaw could not be reached for comment and online court documents do not list attorneys.
The woman contacted authorities in May after learning that the photos were posted on Reddit. She told authorities she only sent the photos to Bradshaw while they were in an intimate relationship and she did not allow him to redistribute them, the document says. She said that they are no longer romantically involved.
The accounts posting the photos were linked to an IP address that provided internet service to a Cambridge home owned by Bradshaw, the document states.
The indictment alleges that Bradshaw disseminated the images without the woman’s knowledge or consent and with the intent to harm her. Maryland law prohibits the gratuitous distribution of private avatars of others that reveal their intimate body parts or show them engaging in sexual activity for the purpose of harm, harassment, or intimidation. threaten, intimidate or coerce the person described.
If convicted, Bradshaw could face a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine for each count.
A biography on the city’s website of about 13,000 notes that Bradshaw, who grew up in the Cambridge area, was the youngest mayor in the city’s history when he took office in January.
City officials declined to comment on the allegations, but a statement on the city’s website said they were “aware of the matter involving the Mayor” and would cooperate with authorities. The statement noted that city business was not affected as the city manager serves as chief executive officer and head of the city’s administrative branch.
“It’s appalling behavior for anyone, especially someone who is accountable to the public,” said state prosecutor Charlton Howard III by phone. Even when the behavior is not within the official mandate, he said, it contributes to a lack of public trust in our leaders and institutions.
“People in romantic relationships exchange private confids, messages, and pictures, and they do it with an assumption, sometimes stated or understood, that they will be kept,” says Howard. privately again. “Distribution can be devastatingly devastating… The depth and pervasive breath of the internet make these cases particularly critical.”
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