Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt is voicing his support for legislation that will increase protections for crime victims. Today, the DA’s Policy Director, Aaron Knott, provided testimony to the Oregon House Committee on Judiciary in support of House Bill 4146.
HB 4146 relates to the crime of unlawful dissemination of an intimate image, which was enacted in 2015 in response to the practice commonly known as “revenge porn.” The current law includes a requirement that the person in an intimate image be “identifiable” in the image itself. This is prone to error, ignores reliable contextual evidence, and is deeply traumatizing.
The bill would remove the requirement that a victim be identifiable within an image, and instead give prosecutors the ability to introduce collateral evidence of identity beyond what is contained in the photo itself.
DA Mike Schmidt said, “No one should be put through the traumatizing process of litigating whether their identity can be discerned through intimate images. Crime victims deserve better, and HB 4146 represents a simple solution to avoiding this unnecessary trauma.”
Policy Director Knott added, “This is a small change that will make an enormous difference in the lives of crime victims who see intimate images of themselves distributed without their consent, but who may nevertheless be denied justice – or forced into a deeply traumatizing legal process to determine whether their body is reasonably identifiable.”
The DA’s Office is urging the legislature’s passage of HB 4146.
More information about HB 4146 can be found on the Oregon Legislature’s website.
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