Andrew Bradshaw, the mayor of Cambridge, Maryland, is being held without bail.
The mayor of a small Maryland town has been arrested and charged with 50 counts of distributing explicit sexual images of his former girlfriend, authorities said.
Andrew Bradshaw, 32, is being held without bail in a Dorchester County jail, according to online records. The mayor of Cambridge, on Maryland's Eastern Shore, used several usernames containing the victim's name and birth date to post photos of the woman, the State Prosecutor's office said Monday.
The images posted to several Reddit forums also contained racist and graphic captions including “HumiliatingComments, “DegradeThisPig,” “DegradedCaptions," "Slut" and “needysluts," according to the charging document.
Bradshaw made 50 such posts between April and May, the document said. The woman contacted authorities in May, after seeing the photos online, prosecutors said. She said they were posted without her consent and that Bradshaw was the only person she sent them to, the charging document said.
Investigators later determined the posts were sent from an IP address at Bradshaw’s home, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the mayor's alleged actions violated the state's Revenge Porn Statute, which bans “the nonconsensual distribution of a private visual representation of another which exposes their intimate body parts or displays them engaged in sexual activity, with the intent to harm, harass, intimidate, threaten or coerce the person depicted."
In a statement issued Monday, State Prosecutor Charlton Howard said, “using someone’s private images without their consent is a serious breach of trust and invasion of privacy, and the power and breadth of the internet makes such a violation even more egregious.
"Our office is committed to protecting victims from those who abuse their positions of power and trust," the prosecutor added.
Acting City Manager David Deutsch said municipal commissioners will meet with city lawyers to determine what, if any, actions should be taken about the mayor's arrest.
Meanwhile, Bradshaw remains in office.
"Government operations are still moving forward,” Deutsch said in a statement. “The legal issues surrounding the mayor is a personal matter and doesn’t involve city business.”
Related Stories
