Letter: Queens DA’s Office played crucial role in revenge porn law

Acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan. Photo via the DA’s Office

By Acting Queens DA John Ryan

I write to correct a possible misimpression that your readers may have drawn from your May 21, 2019 article titled, “Lancman and top revenge porn lawyer stress consequences for cyber sex assault.”

Toward the end of the article the following appeared in regard to a 2014 incident: “She was abandoned by ‘the people who should have stood beside’ her and advised to resign, move and change her name. The police arrested the ex-boyfriend who shared the images, but the Queens DA declined to prosecute, she said.”

We believe in giving credit where credit is due and Councilmember Rory Lancman is entitled to credit for sponsoring and shepherding NYC’s revenge porn bill into law.  We also believe in sharing credit where credit is due. We owe it to the people we serve to let them know when government has heard them and acted. The outlawing of revenge pornography in New York State is a success story in which the Queens District Attorney’s Office was at the forefront.

Special Victims and Computer Crimes prosecutors at the Queens District Attorney’s Office not only recognized the deficiency of the criminal statutes in New York to address revenge pornography, but they led the way in doing something about the problem. More specifically, they literally helped to write the laws that were passed in New York City and Albany to hold perpetrators of revenge pornography accountable for the harm they cause.

No prosecutor’s office in the state took more initiative on, or showed greater leadership in, or devoted more time to this issue than the Queens County District Attorney’s Office. That is why, on the eve of passage in late 2017 of the New York City law, Council Member Lancman’s Chief of Staff thanked the Queens DA, writing, “We, quite literally, could never have done it without your help. Your advice and practical knowledge of how this bill would function in the real world was the most valuable input we received and made the bill better in countless ways.”

And this is why Councilmember Lancman stood shoulder to shoulder with members of my office at the press conference celebrating passage of the city law.

By working collaboratively with the City Council, we were able to significantly advance this issue and correct a grotesque shortcoming in the law. Even better, after years of the state legislature failing to reach agreement on the issue, the successful passage of the New York City statute that we helped craft was seen by many as the catalyst for the 2018 passage of a statewide law banning revenge porn. As we did in the city, prosecutors from the Queens DA’s Office worked closely with legislators in Albany to write an effective law that holds offenders accountable.

The revenge pornography laws we now have are actually examples not of a failed system, but of what can be accomplished when legislators and subject matter experts in criminal justice like the hard-working, thoughtful assistant district attorneys in my office-work together to serve the public. And in the short time since revenge pornography was outlawed by the laws we helped write, my office has been able to bring 43 cases to help victims find a measure of justice and relief from the wrongs they have suffered.

As Celenia, a Queens revenge porn crime victim who testified at the City Council hearings, told us “You were the only ones who followed through and finally got justice for me. I really appreciate all the work you did. No one out there helped me ... not anyone and the fact that the Queens District Attorney’s Office helped me is amazing to me.”  I submit that is the true impression that your readers should draw.

John Ryan is the acting district attorney of Queens.