(NewsNation) — A New York City college professor won a landmark revenge porn lawsuit against her ex-boyfriend.
Dr. Spring Cooper, 43, sued Brooklyn comedian Ryan Broems six years ago after he repeatedly posted nude pictures of her online following their breakup.
Now, Cooper, an associate professor of public health at the City University of New York, is using her case to help promote change when it comes to privacy consent setting boundaries.
It wasn’t just nude photos that Broems shared of Cooper, either. He also shared graphic videos of himself mocking her and his restraining order all over social media. Along with these images and videos, Broems posted Cooper’s name, her face and all her contact information.
“I had hundreds of — mostly — men harassing me,” Cooper said Monday on “Morning in America.”
Cooper would receive messages from these men through Facebook Messenger and her work email. Her ex also posted her physical work details, prompting her to be escorted by security at work, as well as to and from the train station.
“I had my phone shut off at work so that people couldn’t contact me there,” she said. “The harassment surrounding it was quite intense, and it was very malicious in intent.”
Last Friday, Cooper was awarded $30 million by a Manhattan jury, making it the largest verdict awarded in such a case in New York City, the New York Post reported.
Cooper said she feels the jury felt it was important to send a message to her ex and every other person out there who might be thinking about posting intimate pictures or videos of someone without their consent.
“I think the message they sent was that this is not something that our society condones,” Cooper said. “And we won’t stand for that.”
While Cooper would love to see some of the money she was awarded, she likely won’t see any of it because Broems doesn’t have it.
However, Cooper said she just wanted to raise awareness of the harmful effects of online sexual assault. She said there is a lot of research that shows the impacts are the same as a physical sexual assault, and it’s not something that should be taken lightly.
“I’ve done a lot of advocacy to try to get people to understand these impacts and to help reduce the occurrence of that happening in the future,” she said.
She continued, “Everybody is a potential victim or survivor.”
Especially with artificial intelligence, people can now create false images and videos of people, even if they’ve never taken a nude photo of themselves.
“We really need to change our values and society needs to invest more in comprehensive sexuality education,” Cooper said.
“To every survivor: The reason I stuck with this so long is for you. We deserve safety,” she said.
