JOLIET – The lawyer for a former Lockport Township high school teacher charged with posting a nude photo of his ex-girlfriend to an amateur porn site argued that his client might not have known that was actually against the law.

Attorney Jeff Tomczak made his case during a Thursday afternoon hearing in the case of science teacher Stephen W. Soderborg. Soderborg, 29, was charged in January with one misdemeanor count of non-consensual dissemination of sexual images.

At the hearing, Tomczak, argued the law is too vague and that without a clear classification of what images are illegal to possess or publish, a “reasonable person” might not know they are committing a crime. Tomczak also compared the law to the “child porn” statute which, he said, unlike the “revenge porn” statute, clearly classifies what types of images are illegal to possess or publish.

The law, which was signed by Gov. Pat Quinn in 2014, states, "A person commits non-consensual dissemination of private sexual images when he or she ... obtains the image under circumstances in which a reasonable person would know or understand that the image was to remain private."

Tomczak also argued that the law is vague about who needs to consent to publish the images, whether that would be only one or all individuals in the image. He also said that the possible withdrawal of consent after the image was already given to someone else could leave the recipient vulnerable to committing a crime and not knowing it.

“It is subject to arbitrary enforcement,” Tomczak said.

The prosecution argued that other laws have nothing to do with the “revenge porn” law and that the definition of the word “private” says an image can be for one particular person or a group of people only. Therefore, Soderborg would have known that the photos were not meant for publication to the website.

“It's very understandable that a reasonable person would understand this,” said Assistant State's Attorney Colleen Griffin.

The then 27-year-old woman originally contacted police about the publication of the images in November of 2015 after she learned the photos were on an amateur sex website without her permission. Will County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer said in January that Soderborg had taken down the photos from the website. Soderborg was booked in the Will County jail on January 9 but was released later that day after posting $20,000 bond.

Judge Chrystel L. Gavlin and the attorneys agreed to a decision date of Aug. 24.