New Canaan Sextortion Lawyer

Whether it involves threatening to disseminate someone else’s private intimate images unless they pay a ransom or actually disseminating those images in a manner intended to cause that other person harm, allegations of “sextortion” in Connecticut are taken seriously by law enforcement and prosecuted harshly in criminal courts. If you stand accused of this sort of offense or any other form of sex crime, working closely with a seasoned New Canaan sextortion lawyer could be crucial both to enforcing your rights in the short term and preserving your best interests in the long term.

How State Courts Approach Extortion Involving Sexual Material

Extortion schemes built around obtaining and then threatening to publicly reveal “nudes” or other private images showing someone engaged in sexual conduct have become increasingly common over the past several years as internet use has become more widespread across every segment of society. Because of this, law enforcement authorities in Connecticut have begun treating people accused of this type of offense extremely harshly, sometimes to a degree that results in them misunderstanding exactly how the law defines this sort of crime.

According to Connecticut General Statutes (C.G.S.) § 53a-119(5), extortion involves someone compelling another person to pay them or give them some other type of property by making a believable threat to inflict some kind of harm upon them. Importantly, there must both be a credible threat to cause harm and actual harm. In this case, this means publicly releasing private sexually explicit images depicting the threatened party and the actual delivery of money or something else of value as a direct result of the threat must be present for a charge of extortion to hold up in court.

This is crucial to understand because Larceny via Extortion is always a Class B felony punishable by between one and 20 years in prison and up to $15,000 in fines, as per C.G.S. § 53a-122. Proving that even one core element of this offense is missing—ideally with a New Canaan sextortion attorney’s help—can be vital to mitigating the severity of charges a defendant is facing or even getting their charges dismissed altogether.

What Is “Revenge Porn?”

If someone threatens to release private intimate images or actually does so without there being any financial element to their actions, they may be prosecuted under a different section of the Connecticut Penal Code. Specifically, they may be charged under C.G.S. § 53a-189c for “Unlawful Dissemination of an Intimate Image,” which requires all the following conditions to be true for a conviction:

• The image(s) in question showed a clearly identifiable person engaged in some form of sexual display or conduct, which did not occur in a public and/or commercial setting;
• The defendant intentionally disseminated the image(s) to one or more people other than the depicted person;
• The depicted person had a reasonable expectation that the image(s) would not be disseminated, and the defendant knew of that expectation; and/or
• The depicted person suffered some form of harm as a result of the dissemination.

As a sextortion lawyer in New Canaan could further explain, this offense is a Class A misdemeanor if the defendant disseminated the image(s) in question to one person, and it is a Class D felony if the defendant disseminated the image(s) to multiple people over the internet or through any other telecommunications service.

Work With a New Canaan Sextortion Attorney

Sextortion accusations can lead to severe criminal repercussions, including thousands of dollars in fines and years of incarceration, even for a first-time offender. Put simply, this is not a situation you can afford to take lightly or one that you should try to handle without assistance from a knowledgeable New Canaan sextortion lawyer. Call the Law Offices of Mark Sherman today for a confidential consultation, and click here to read over 300 certified reviews from our past clients.