Former Maryland Mayor Andrew Bradshaw has pleaded guilty to charges of distributing revenge porn online. On Monday, the Dorchester County Circuit Court judge handed Bradshaw a jail sentence of five years for posting nude photos of his ex-girlfriend on Redditt in 2021.
According to ABC News, the former Cambridge mayor will be serving time of one year and a day for each of the 5 counts of revenge porn. All incarceration time behind bars, however, is suspended. On top of this, he was sentenced to three years of supervised probation and slapped with a $1,000 fine for each count.
As restitution to the victim, Bradshaw was also ordered to pay $750 and render 100 hours of community service. He was initially charged with 50 counts of distributing revenge porn and faced the maximum penalty of 100 years in prison, along with a $250,000 fine.
It was in May 2021 when Bradshaw’s former girlfriend contacted authorities upon learning the existence of such photos that were posted on Redditt. The images were sent by the woman exclusively to Bradshaw while they were together and said she had no knowledge or consent to post them on social media.
During the investigation, detectives found numerous public posts by Bradshaw that featured 10 unique visual representations of his ex-girlfriend captioned with language depicting humiliation and degradation. The state prosecutors also said the photo captions contained several racial slurs and sexually explicit language. All the posts were traced to an IP address that serviced Bradshaw’s residence. The charging document stated that Bradshaw had clear intent to harm her.
The 32-year-old Republican mayor was officially charged in November 2021 and voluntarily stepped down from his position on Jan. 10, 2022. Local media earlier reported of a raid back in August at his office, although the reason for this has not been disclosed. In an interview with law enforcement, Bradshaw admitted to creating the accounts and posting his ex-girlfriend’s nude photographs.
Bradshaw is a long-time resident of Cambridge and became its youngest mayor. Commission President Lajan Cephas sits as the acting mayor of Cambridge and has announced a special election to be held sometime this year.
