FLORIDA – Yesterday Jim Garrity sued Walmart and a male former employee, under Florida’s “reverge porn” law, alleging that both the employee and Walmart managers disseminated intimate pictures of Mr. Garrity’s client that she fully expected would remain private.
More specifically, the lawsuit alleges that after the coworker obtained the photos, he shared them with other Walmart employees, and that upon information and belief, Walmart managers also disseminated them. Criminal court records state that he then beat the woman, kidnapped her, and drove her out of town. Fortunately, a friend called police and alerted them to the extreme situation. Police located the vehicle, stopped it, and arrested him. He was subsequently incarcerated following findings of guilt for battery, witness tampering, retaliation against a witness causing bodily injury, and assault on a law enforcement officer.
The lawsuit now seeks financial compensation from both Walmart and the man.
Florida, like many states, has a “revenge porn” or sexual cyberharassment law. They forbid anyone in possession of sexually revealing photos from distributing them where the subject of the photos expected them to remain private. Violations of the law are not only a crime, but also allow the victim to sue for a minimum of $10,000 per violation, as well as many other damages.
Florida’s law says in part:
“Sexually cyberharass” means to publish to an Internet website or disseminate through electronic means to another person a sexually explicit image of a person that contains or conveys the personal identification information of the depicted person without the depicted person’s consent, contrary to the depicted person’s reasonable expectation that the image would remain private, for no legitimate purpose, with the intent of causing substantial emotional distress to the depicted person. Evidence that the depicted person sent a sexually explicit image to another person does not, on its own, remove his or her reasonable expectation of privacy for that image.
Garrity accepted the case because the woman has suffered extreme emotional and physical distress, and deserves the best possible representation. His other goal is to send a powerful message to employers that allowing this kind of severe abuse comes with an equally severe penaltiy.
Categories: Gender Discrimination, Retaliation, Sexual Harassment
Jim Garrity, Esq. - Employee Rights Lawyer 
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