Iniguez and his partner were together for four years before calling it quits. After the break-up, Iniguez began sending her harassing text messages. Even though she successfully obtained a restraining order in November 2011, Iniguez used an alias to post insulting comments about her on her employer’s Facebook page a month later. In March of this year, Iniguez upped the ante by posting topless pictures of his ex-partner to the Facebook page while calling her “drunk” and a “slut.”
California enacted its “revenge porn” law back in 2013. The law prohibits people from posting sexually-explicit images or videos online without the consent of the person in them. At first, the law only covered images and videos captured by someone else, but the law was expanded in August to include selfies.
According to Los Angeles city attorney Mike Feuer, this conviction should be seen as a warning to others. “California’s new revenge porn law gives prosecutors a valuable tool to protect victims whose lives and reputations have been upended by a person they once trusted,” said Feuer in a statement. “This conviction sends a strong message that this type of malicious behavior will not be tolerated.”
Since 2013, 13 states, including California, have enacted revenge porn laws. However, those laws vary from state to state, with Arizona experiencing some pushback in the form of the American Civil Liberties Union. Arizona’s revenge porn law considers revenge porn a felony in the first offense, a law that the civil rights group views as broad to the point where artists, historians, booksellers, and others who publish nude images for reasons other than revenge are criminalized. As a result, the group sued Arizona.
As for Iniguez, he was guilty of violating two restraining orders and California’s revenge porn law. He will serve one year in jail and three years of probation.
