Civil Liability for Showing Some Friends “Unflattering” Nonconsensual Nude Photo of Ex
From Thibaudeau v. Reis, decided Wednesday by Massachusetts Appeals Court Justices Kenneth Desmond, Maureen Walsh & Robert Toone:
[1.] The conduct forming the basis of the plaintiff’s claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress was the defendant’s non-consensual acts of sharing an unflattering nude photograph of the plaintiff and surreptitiously accessing the plaintiff’s personal email, Google, and Facebook accounts.
At trial, the defendant testified that she took the nude photograph of the plaintiff (photo) on her cell phone when she and the plaintiff were living together as a couple and that they both laughed at the photo because it was unflattering. The defendant further stated that she only showed the photograph to her friend, Amy Gallinelli, while they were sitting alone at a public bar after she and the plaintiff had broken up. She testified that the purpose of showing Gallinelli the photo was to confide in her and to have a laugh.
The defendant also admitted that she sent Gallinelli an electronic copy of the photo on multiple occasions. On one of these occasions, the defendant decided to send Gallinelli the photo to “cheer her up” after Gallinelli had experienced a breakup of her own, and to express the sentiment that “it could be worse.” On another occasion, the defendant testified that she set the nude photo as the plaintiff’s contact picture on her cell phone and then shared the contact profile with Gallinelli. The defendant could not recall whether she told Gallinelli not to share the photo with anyone else but felt like they had an “unspoken” agreement that her friend would not share the photo with others.
The defendant also read
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