Cannon, now 29, claimed in a lawsuit that her former teacher at Wall Township High School got ahold of photos that she had texted to a boyfriend years earlier and posted them to the Internet in 2018. — Unsplash
A jury in Ocean County has awarded a US$10,000 (RM46,535) judgment to a woman who sued her former high school math teacher for posting 14 nude and semi-nude photos of her to a porn website.
Kaitlyn Cannon, now 29, claimed in a lawsuit that her former teacher at Wall Township High School got ahold of photos that she had texted to a boyfriend years earlier and posted them to the Internet in 2018.
The website is dedicated to displaying nude images of unsuspecting young women in a database searchable by town, according to the suit, filed April 5, 2019, in Superior Court of Ocean County.
The teacher was identified in court documents as Christopher Doyle, who taught math and coached boys and girls tennis teams at Wall Township High School.
Doyle has since resigned, but is believed to be teaching in another district in the state, according to Cannon’s attorneys, Cali Madia and Daniel Szalkiewicz, of New York.
Doyle did not immediately return a message left on his phone Thursday morning.
“Kaitlyn changed her entire life after this happened,” Madia said in an interview Thursday. “She enrolled in graduate school, became a licensed social worker and is now helping people who have been affected by non-consensual pornography,” Madia said.
“There are not a lot of resources out there for this and there are a lot of people who are affected,” the attorney said.
Photos of Cannon were posted in three uploads to the porn site on March 18, 2018, by an anonymous user who included Cannon’s first name and last initial in the caption, according to the lawsuit.
“While a couple photos depicted only (Cannon’s) face, several others showed her exposed breasts, genitals, naked buttocks, or in only her undergarments,” the lawsuit said.
Soon after the images went live, Cannon received an alarming text message about them from a friend.
Cannon contacted her attorneys, who requested removal of the photos, along with the IP address of the user who posted the images, the lawsuit says.
Madia and Szalkiewicz also subpoenaed Optimum Cable for identifying information about the IP address and learned that the account holder was Doyle, according to the suit.
“We were not able to figure out how he obtained the images,” Madia said. The suit says the photos were removed from the website in April 2018.
Madia said Cannon took the selfies many years earlier, texted them to her boyfriend at the time, and that the boyfriend’s phone was stolen soon after.
The boyfriend was not a party to the lawsuit, and Madia says she does not doubt his story that his phone was stolen.
The teacher testified in the civil court trial that he saw the nude images of Cannon online but claimed he could not recall posting them to the porn website.
The lawsuit accused Doyle of violating a New Jersey statute that prohibits posting nude or sexual images of a person to the Internet without their consent. The attorneys also sued the teacher for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The jury deliberated for less than an hour Friday before finding Doyle responsible for posting the images and awarded Cannon a US$10,000 (RM46,535) judgment.
Doyles attorney, James Uliano, of West Long Branch, told NJ Advance Media the jury found Doyle did not inflict emotional distress on Cannon and declined to award punitive damages.
“The US$10,000 (RM46,535) award was reasonable considering the evidence presented in the trial including the testimony that the subject pictures were previously on the Internet,” Uliano said.
In a video posted to social media after winning her case, Cannon said she was grateful to the jury for the verdict.
“At the same time, the trial was very hard for me and my mental health,” she said. – nj.com/Tribune News Service
