Defense attorney says Island Lake woman had ‘absolute right’ to share sexual images of woman her fiance was having an affair with

Prosecutors argue the images were private and that they were shared without the woman’s consent

Testimony began Wednesday in the trial of an Island Lake woman accused of sharing sexually explicit photos that her fiance received from another woman.

Bethany Austin’s 2016 case brought the state’s revenge porn laws into question when a McHenry County judge ruled Austin was exercising freedom of speech by sharing the photos. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Oct. 18, 2019, however, that McHenry County Judge Joel Berg was wrong to dismiss the charge of nonconsensual dissemination of sexual images against Austin.

The act, often referred to as “revenge porn,” is a criminal offense in Illinois and can be treated either as a felony or misdemeanor, depending on the circumstances.

Austin is charged with a Class 4 felony, typically punishable by as many as three years in prison.

Although prosecutors claimed the images were “surreptitiously obtained,” one of Austin’s attorneys, Wayne Giampietro, said Austin had “an absolute right” to share the material.

“There’s nothing surreptitious about any of this,” Giampietro said.

Following Austin’s split with her former fiance, Matthew Rychlik, she mailed friends and family a packet containing a four-page letter, text message printouts and nude photos of a woman with whom Rychlik was having an affair, court records show.

Rychlik received a copy of the packet from a friend and filed a report with the Crystal Lake Police Department, who subsequently charged Austin with nonconsensual dissemination of sexual images.

During a 2016 police interview, Austin admitted to mailing the packets, which included the intimate photos, McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney Kyle Bruett said in court Wednesday.

“She admitted to all of it,” Bruett said

Austin discovered the other woman’s nude photographs in an iCloud account she shared with Rychlik, court records show. She distributed the images and her letter to several people months later when she learned that Rychlik told family and friends that Austin had stopped cooking and cleaning and claimed the split was mutual, her attorneys have said.

“He was doing everything he could to destroy her reputation and to defame her,” Giampietro said Wednesday.

Rychlik didn’t know at the time that his text messages were visible to Austin via an iPod the couple shared, he said. Even so, it was clear by the “private nature” of the images that they weren’t intended to be further shared. As of Wednesday, Rychlik was unsure how exactly Austin obtained the photos and said in court that she might have used cellphone “spyware” to access the images.

“I still don’t know where they came from,” Rychlik said.

Giampietro challenged Rychlik’s notion that the images were meant to be private, however.

“There’s nothing in them that says ‘keep this stuff secret’ is there?” Giampietro asked the woman in the photos, who also testified in court Wednesday.

Although she might not have included that specific language in her text messages to Rychlik, the woman said she asked her friend who took the photos to keep them private.

The case trial will continue Friday afternoon when Austin’s attorneys plan to call at least three witnesses. Prosecutors, however, have asked to bar each of those witnesses’ testimony.

While preparing for trial, attorneys from both sides are required to disclose witnesses who are under subpoena. Giampietro issued the subpoenas several days ago, but forgot to notify the state’s attorney’s office, he said.

McHenry County Judge Michael Coppedge could address the matter Friday once the trial resumes.