Island Lake woman says she distributed another’s explicit photos to prove her fiancé was having an affair

An Island Lake woman said Friday that she didn’t believe a set of semi-nude photos sent to her fiancé by another woman were intended to be private when she mailed them out to family and friends in 2016.

The trial of 43-year-old Bethany Austin continued Friday with testimony from five defense witnesses.

Austin was charged in 2016 with a felony count of nonconsensual dissemination of sexual images after she discovered explicit photos of another woman in text messages on her fiancé's iCloud account.

Austin later sent screenshots of the text conversations and the accompanying photos to family and friends after the couple split.

“I decided to tell people the truth,” Austin said in court Friday.

Before testimony could begin, attorneys argued about whether the defense’s witnesses should be allowed to testify.

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

“It is beyond the realm of this court’s comprehension as to why the defense didn’t do that,” McHenry County Judge Michael Coppedge said during court Friday.

McHenry County assistant state’s attorneys Kyle Bruett and Tyler Mikan asked to bar testimony from those witnesses, claiming that without prior notice prosecutors didn’t have enough time to follow up with, “debunk or corroborate” the potential testimony.

Bruett also suggested a separate hearing process to determine whether those testimonies might be considered relevant.

Ultimately, Coppedge allowed Austin’s attorneys to present their witnesses, citing a similar case out of Waukegan. In that case, partially barring witness testimony based only on a notice violation was ruled “too severe of a sanction,” Coppedge said.

Throughout the afternoon, the judge heard testimony from Austin’s family, including her sister, brother-in-law and two of Austin’s children.

Although Austin testified that there was “no privacy” in the house she and her then-fiancé Matthew Rychlik shared in 2016, Austin’s children said otherwise.

Multiple people in the house shared an iPad and knew that notifications would show on the screen when Rychlik received new messages or emails, Austin’s children testified. Although they had the opportunity to look at those messages, they never did.

“I respect people’s privacy,” said Austin’s adult son, Domaneck Franco.

But the provocative photos of another woman captured Austin’s attention, she said.

“I was doing my quizzes for school on the iPad and pictures started popping up,” Austin said.

She responded to the situation by confronting Rychlik during an appointment with a counselor, Austin said. Rychlik denied having an affair, Austin said, and the couple moved into separate homes soon after.

It wasn’t until a few months later that Austin took matters into her own hands after learning her ex-fiancé was spreading rumors about their breakup, she said.

In response, Austin compiled screenshots of Rychlik’s text message conversations and photos and mailed them to family and friends as a “wedding cancellation letter.”

“I wanted them to know that I wasn’t crazy,” she said.

Rychlik later received a copy of the packet and filed a report with the Crystal Lake Police Department. When police questioned Austin about her involvement, she admitted to sending the material and provided a written statement, unaware that she might have broken the law, she said.

“I was heartbroken,” she said in court Friday.

Austin denied using “spyware” to obtain Rychlik’s messages, claiming she retrieved the information from an iCloud account and other phone records.

Prosecutors, however, pointed to at least one document that showed a URL for a website called “spyonline.com.” Austin said she didn’t know anything about the website.

The trial will continue Monday afternoon, when attorneys are expected to give closing arguments.