A former Maryland mayor pleaded guilty to posting revenge porn online, agreeing to a deal that will allow him to avoid time behind bars.
Former Cambridge Mayor Andrew Bradshaw was sentenced to five years and five days of imprisonment after pleading guilty to five counts of distributing revenge porn online, but all the incarceration time has been suspended. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised probation and fined $5,000, and he must complete 100 hours of community service and pay $750 to the woman in the nude photos he admitted to posting online without her knowledge or consent.
Bradshaw had initially faced a maximum sentence of two years in jail and a $5,000 fine for each count, according to court documents.
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The former mayor resigned in January after Bradshaw admitted to law enforcement that he had created several Reddit accounts to post nude photos of an ex-girlfriend, who said she had given him the photos while they were romantically involved but didn’t give him permission to distribute them. The former mayor is alleged to have posted explicit photos of the woman with sexually degrading captions attached, often including racial slurs.
The woman alerted law enforcement to the posts in May 2021 after she found them online, prompting officials to conduct a search of Bradshaw’s house, where they found “the same visual representations” that were posted online, according to court documents.
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“Anyone who abuses the trust and confidence of another to degrade and humiliate them, particularly through the use of a forum as powerful and pervasive as the Internet, must be held accountable. Such actions are especially egregious when committed by an individual holding a public leadership role of power and authority,” said state prosecutor Charlton Howard. “Our office is committed to seeking justice for victims of abuse and breach of both public and personal trust.”
Bradshaw was elected mayor in January 2021 and was the youngest mayor in Cambridge’s history. After his resignation, Commission President Lajan Cephas assumed his duties in the interim, and the city charter is expected to hold a special election to replace Bradshaw.
