Man accused of posting intimate photos of woman with ‘barbaric’ messages is jailed in McHenry County

A man who is accused of posting intimate photos of a woman on the internet with “guttural and barbaric” comments was granted pretrial release from McHenry County jail Tuesday. However, on Thursday, when appearing for another case involving the same woman Joseph C. Becker’s pretrial release was revoked.

Becker, 47, of the 500 block of Versailles Drive in Bartlett, is charged with 10 counts of non-consensual dissemination of private sexual images, Class 4 felonies, according to McHenry County prosecutors and jail records.

According to authorities, Becker had been uploading intimate photos from his work computer for the last three years to various websites, telling people online to follow the woman on social media, asking if people wanted to meet her and emailing various businesses asking if they would hang the images of the woman on their wall. He was doing all of this to “humiliate and hurt” her, Assistant State’s Attorney Anthony Marin said Tuesday in asking Chief Judge Michael Chmiel to detain Becker in the jail pretrial.

“He put her in harm’s way, people could hurt her,” Marin said. “Give the victim some ... peace of mind and detain him.”

Marin also noted Becker’s pending case involving the same woman, as well as a 1995 conviction for phone harassment of a Lake in the Hills man and a 2014 Kane County conviction of cyber-stalking involving a different woman.

His attorney appointed for the detention hearing, Assistant Public Defender David Giesinger, said Becker denies this is a case of “revenge porn” in asking he be released pretrial with conditions. Becker, Giesinger said, is seeking counseling and psychotherapy “to address these allegations” which are “nonviolent in nature.”

Giesinger said there are programs available to monitor his internet use.

Chmiel called what Becker wrote on the images about the woman “guttural and barbaric” and that in posting those messages, Becker was “encouraging harm” be done to the woman.

“It’s concerning,” Chmiel said.

Becker was granted pretrial release at Tuesday’s hearing with conditions including he have no internet usage – “a full stop,” Chmiel said. Becker also was ordered to obtain a sexual offender evaluation by June 4, have no contact with the woman and not leave the state without permission from the court.