Former Employees Who Leaked Explicit Images Of Stacey Plaskett And Her Husband Plead Guilty

Two former employees of Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett pleaded guilty on Tuesday to District and federal charges for distributing explicit images of Ms. Plaskett and her husband, in an effort to harm her reelection.

Juan R. McCullum, 36, of Washington, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and cyberstalking crimes, while co-worker Dorene Browne-Louis, 45, of Upper Marlboro, Md., admitted to conspiracy and being an accessory after the fact.

Mr. McCullum faces one year and 361 days in federal prison, all suspended except for one year and one day, after agreeing to a plea deal with prosecutors. His sentencing will occur on March 8 before U.S. District Judge John Bates of Washington. Ms. Browne-Louis faces up to six months on each count. Her sentencing has been set for April 23.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tejpal Singh Chawla said Ms. Plaskett intends to attend the sentencing, according to the Washington Post.

Mr. McCullum and Ms. Browne-Louis were indicted in July 2017. According to the indictment, both aides had worked for the delegate to Congress for over a year before leaving in mid-2016. The indictment said that in March 2016, Ms. Plaskett asked Mr. McCullum to take her iPhone to an Apple store for repairs. While he had her phone, however, he created Hotmail and Facebook accounts under a fictitious name to distribute and post nude images of Ms. Plaskett and her husband. The indictment alleged that Mr. McCullum used the social media accounts to encourage others to spread the images and videos in the U.S. Virgin Islands, whose people Ms. Plaskett represents.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia, Mr. McCullum alerted Ms. Browne-Louis to his actions, who later deleted Mr. McCullum’s text messages from her phone and gave “false, incomplete, and misleading statements” to law enforcement about her knowledge of Mr. McCullum’s actions.

Following the leak, which occurred in July of 2016, Ms. Plaskett said, “The theft and distribution of these personal images via the internet marks a new low in Virgin Islands politics. I am shocked and deeply saddened that someone would stoop to such a level as to invade my marriage and the love of my family in an attempt to besmirch me politically.

She added, “Private photographs shared between my husband and me, as well as a private playful video of our family, including one of our children, were illegally obtained and disseminated via the internet. To say my family and I are greatly upset would be a tremendous understatement. As a mother I am outraged that one of my children was exploited in such a way. The theft and dissemination of these images via the internet is a shockingly disgusting invasion of my family’s and my privacy – not to mention criminal acts in violation of both territorial and federal law.”