MINNEAPOLIS — A state senator from Minnesota says he's the victim of "revenge porn" perpetrated by a "former friend" who sent explicit images to legislative colleagues.
Democratic Sen. Scott Dibble says he's been harassed for the past five months by a man with whom he had an intimate, virtual relationship. Dibble, who is married, said the man sent private photos, videos, and text messages to fellow lawmakers on Friday.
Ellen C. Anderson, a spokesperson for the Senate DFL Caucus, confirmed that lawmakers received such messages. Those who had their full email addresses on their home pages received the images, whereas those who had contact forms on their web pages didn't get them.
In an interview with Minnesota Public Radio, Sen. Dibble said the man -- who lives overseas -- has been harassing and threatening him since early June when Dibble broke off the online relationship.
"This person has been threatening to do this to me for a long, long time," Dibble told MPR reporter Brian Bakst.
"I’ve been coerced and threated and harassed by him, since we had that brief relationship, and I’ve been attempting to end it now for a couple of months."
Dibble's husband of 11 years, Richard Leyva, sat next to Dibble during the interview and both men said their marriage is a strong as ever.
"I admire and love and respect him in so many ways," Leyva said in the MPR interview.
"Our marriage is strong, and no act of coercion will ever break this marriage apart."
He asserted the virtual relationship wasn't a breach of Senate ethics because the man had no business with the Minnesota Senate, and did not work in a subordinate position.
Dibble, who has been in the legislature for 19 years, conceded he suffered a lapse in judgment by trusting the other man to discard those private images.
"He committed a crime. This is revenge porn. This is sharing of explicit images that were understood to be private and he sent them out to quite a few individuals with the explicit attempt to harm me and embarrass me and harm my life."
Senator Susan Kent of Woodbury told KARE she didn't receive the images but was one of many senators who reached out to show their support to Dibble.
"We passed the law for revenge porn in 2016 because we know this happens to people, it happens to people who aren’t elected officials," Sen. Kent remarked.
"That’s not okay. It’s a terrible thing and invasive thing to do. It just dramatically affects people’s lives."
Kent said she believes Dibble will weather this storm, which should've remained part of his personal life.
"I think he’ll get a lot of grace on this one. People recognize he’s a good guy and a good public servant, and this happened in his life and it really doesn’t have anything to do with the good work he does for Minnesotans."
Dibble's announcement comes just days after U.S. Rep. Katie Hill of California resigned after nude photos of her were made public.
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