Jermaine Cunningham Charged Under Revenge Porn Law

Jets linebacker Jermaine Cunningham has been charged with violating New Jersey's revenge porn law, one of three charges he faces after his arrest last week.

Summit police went to Cunningham's home about 4:19 p.m. on Dec. 29 in response to a report of a domestic dispute. Information released by the Union County Prosecutor's Office office doesn't go too far into the details of what officers found when they arrived, but Cunningham was arrested and charged with the following:

Third-degree criminal mischief for clothing that had been destroyed. Spokesman Mark Spivey said the clothes belonged to a woman who Cunningham had dated and used to live there.

Fourth-degree unlawful weapon transport for a loaded .380-caliber handgun found in the glove compartment of his Audi. The search was consensual, and the question of who owns the gun is under investigation, Spivey said.

Third-degree invasion of privacy for disseminating images "sexual in nature to another person without the consent of the person in the images," said Spivey, who added that officers learned about the images at the scene from the woman whom Cunningham had dated.

Over at the Daily Dot, Kevin Collier reports that New Jersey is one of 16 states with such laws on the books, although New Jersey's is among the toughest.

In New Jersey, where Cunningham was arrested, the law against distributing sexualized images without their subject's consent is one of the oldest and harshest on the books.

People found guilty of third-degree invasion of privacy in New Jersey face between three to five years in prison, Carrie Goldberg, a New York-based lawyer who specialized in revenge porn cases, told the Daily Dot. However, she said, they often plea-bargain and receive reduced sentences.

"It looks like a standard situation where somebody consensually had the pictures and then distributed them in some fashion without the subject's consent. That's the basic definition of revenge porn," she said.

Cunningham was released on his own recognizance. In his fifth year in the league, Cunningham spent the season on injured reserved. He becomes an unrestricted free agent in March.

Image via Associated Press