In seeking the maximum sentence, prosecutors said in a court filing that Uhlenbrock ‘has weaponised the Internet to destroy one woman’s life’. — 123rf.com
A former United Airlines pilot who was convicted by a jury in less than 20 minutes for posting online nude photos of an ex-girlfriend from San Antonio is going to prison for a third time.
Mark Joseph Uhlenbrock, 69, of suburban St. Louis, was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for Internet stalking that occurred while he was on supervised release after his 2016 guilty plea for an identical crime involving the same woman. He also received a one-year sentence for violating the terms of his earlier release. The sentences run consecutively.
Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez to sentence Uhlenbrock to seven years in prison.
He has been in custody since late 2020 for violating the terms of his earlier release and will receive credit for time served. He also must serve three years of supervised release and pay the woman US$4,700 for past and future medical costs.
Uhlenbrock was sentenced to 41 months in prison and three years of supervised release in the 2016 case.
In seeking the maximum sentence, prosecutors said in a court filing that Uhlenbrock “has weaponised the Internet to destroy one woman’s life”.
“The defendant has demonstrated that when given the opportunity, he will revictimise the victim in this case,” Assistant US Attorney William Calve said before the judge imposed the sentence.
‘Death sentence’
The victim told the judge of the “depth of damage” Uhlenbrock has caused in her life.
“This badgering never seems to end, and I deserve to have my life back,” she said. “The defendant has taken away 17 years of my life that I can never get back.”
It is San Antonio Express-News policy not to identify victims of sexual harassment.
Shannon Locke, Uhlenbrock’s defense lawyer, argued for a prison sentence of 59 months – 51 months for his latest conviction and eight months for the release violation.
In requesting that he receive a prison term at the low end of the sentencing guidelines, Locke said Uhlenbrock has a “myriad of health complications, including a heart condition”. He also requires increased medical care and will be at a higher risk of contracting and dying from the Covid-19 virus while locked up, the lawyer said.
“In sum, an 84-month sentence for Mr. Uhlenbrock would likely represent a death sentence,” Locke said in a Monday court filing.
Uhlenbrock told the judge he suffers from a “terrible addiction”.
“I hated what I was doing, and yet I felt enslaved by it,” he said. “I can’t explain it.”
First case
Court records show that Uhlenbrock and the woman started a romantic relationship while both were employed at United Airlines. She was a flight attendant.
She sent Uhlenbrock intimate pictures and he took such photos of her, mostly with her permission. He later uploaded them to swinger and pornographic websites without her permission. A colleague alerted her to the online photos and the woman ended the relationship in 2006.
Uhlenbrock continued posting images of the woman, along with accompanying “sexual stories falsely written from her perspective”, prosecutors said in a court filing. Despite knowing the “substantial emotional distress he causes”, prosecutors added, “he does it anyway, to exert power over his victim” to keep her “in his life permanently”.
She sued Uhlenbrock in state District Court in Bexar County and the court issued a consent judgment against him for more than US$100,000. He agreed to stop posting pictures online.
But he continued to post the photos, so she sued him again in 2009. She sued a third time in 2011 when he continued to engage in the same conduct, prosecutors said in a court filing. The woman reached another settlement, with Uhlenbrock agreeing to pay additional damages.
In 2015, the FBI opened an investigation. It executed a search warrant of Uhlenbrock's home and seized two laptops that contained photos of the woman.
He admitted to posting the pictures online despite multiple civil injunctions.
A federal grand jury indicted him in 2016. He later pleaded guilty and Rodriguez sentenced him to 41 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Uhlenbrock was arrested for violating the terms of his supervised release by viewing sexually explicit material, having contact with a minor without prior approval and failing to answer truthfully about his possession of an Internet-enabled computer without prior approval, his lawyer said in a court filing. He was not posting photos of the woman at that point, the lawyer added.
In 2019, Rodriguez sentenced Uhlenbrock to six months in prison and three years of supervised release for violating the terms of his probation. The judge ordered Uhlenbrock to participate in sex offender treatment and not access the internet without approval from the probation office.
He served the sentence and started his supervised release in the summer of 2019.
‘Vendetta’
But prosecutors said Uhlenbrock's “vendetta” against the woman “was not finished”. In June 2020, she learned images of and posts about her again had appeared online.
Fearing for her safety, prosecutors said in a court filing, she contacted the FBI. Its investigation tracked the posts back to Uhlenbrock.
A grand jury indicted him on a single count of Internet stalking based on conduct from May to September 2020. In May, he went to trial and a jury found him guilty after deliberating less than 20 minutes.
Uhlenbrock’s lawyer filed a motion to acquit, a request Rodriguez denied.
“There was extensive evidence of intent and ‘substantial emotional distress’ before the jury to find the Defendant guilty,” the judge said in a June order.
Separately, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued United Airlines in 2018 in San Antonio over Uhlenbrock’s conduct while on the job. The agency said the Chicago-based airline failed to protect the flight attendant from harassment and a hostile work environment.
In 2019, the airline agreed to pay the woman US$321,000 in back pay and compensatory damages to settle the action. – The San Antonio Express-News/Tribune News Service
