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Nashville women seek to change law on revenge porn, similar crimes

Posted on by Online Niel
Nashville women seek to change law on revenge porn, similar crimes

It’s a sorority that none of them wanted to join.

A group of women from disparate backgrounds have come together through shock, anger and violence after a Nashville man allegedly secretly filmed them having sex without their consent.

Now, the women hope to change Tennessee law to allow would-be victims to seek justice for those they feel have been denied.

“We want to change the shame,” said one of the women, Brook Farrell, in an interview with The Tennessean. “There’s no reason to be ashamed of that. He should be ashamed.”

In November, Matthew Vollmer was arrested and charged with eight counts of illegal photography after his girlfriend discovered explicit videos on his computer, allegedly filmed with a hidden camera, featuring several women.

Vollmer was accused of videotaping four victims. Vollmer, who currently faces a trial set for March, did not respond to a request from Tennessee for comment through his attorney.

The charge is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail. But the statute of limitations means at least five other women who identified themselves in Vollmer’s records, including Farrell, cannot press charges against him.

Although they were filmed in their most intimate moments without their consent, their relations with Vollmer took place more than a year ago. Vollmer was not charged with distributing or sharing the videos, which would be a felony.

Farrell and others are now pushing for legal changes next year.

Several of the alleged victims worked with Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, and Rep. Vincent Dixie, D-Nashville, to draft a new bill for the upcoming legislative session. As of Tuesday, the legislation had not yet been tabled.

But the bill is expected to change the statute of limitations to one year from the date a crime was discovered, rather than one year from when a crime was committed. Repeat offenders could also be charged with harsher crimes and penalties.

“I think if it’s just a misdemeanor, it’s not a deterrent,” said Erika Thomas, a former lobbyist and alleged victim who uses her contacts in the legislature to push for legal change. “Who cares if it wasn’t distributed? We’re all glad it wasn’t, but at the same time it doesn’t matter. It was so violated for this to happen and who knows, in 10 or 20 years. , what he’s doing with that footage, he could blackmail us.”

Laura Cantwell, one of the victims in the criminal case, also sued Vollmer in civil court. The Vanderbilt law student was first advised to file the lawsuit under a pseudonym to protect her identity. But she decided to put her name on it and go public with her experience to fight “the stigma of being a sex woman and being a victim of a sex crime”.

“It was really important for me to put my name on it to show him that he has no power over us,” Cantwell said. “Especially when we come together and support each other, we are ten times stronger than he could ever be. And we want to make sure that going forward, women who are in similar circumstances, with perhaps fewer resources than we currently have, are able to get the justice that we believe has been denied to many of our new friends.”

This summer, 27-year-old Christiana Werner was staying at her boyfriend’s house when she noticed a file on his computer with her name on it. In it, she found videos of her and Vollmer having sex, explicit recordings filmed without her knowledge or consent.

Werner discovered a hidden camera disguised as an alarm clock next to Vollmer’s bed, in addition to other sexually explicit recordings and photos of other women on his computer. Eleven files on the computer had other women’s names on them. She reported Vollmer to the Nashville police.

But for months, none of the other illegally registered women were identified. This fall, Werner took matters into his own hands. She shared her story in a large Nashville women’s group on Facebook and urged Vollmer’s former partners to contact her.

In October, the post found its way to Emily Benavides, who had a relationship with Vollmer in 2022. After contacting the police, who confirmed there was a computer file with her name on it, she went to the department to follow up secret recording to confirm it was indeed her. It was a “humbling” experience, she said in a recent interview with The Tennessean, fighting back tears as Cantwell held out her hand and Farrell handed her a tissue.

“It’s difficult to put into words, to really grasp the gravity of his actions and how his actions affected me,” Benavides said. She has been diagnosed with acute stress disorder and struggles with persistent nightmares as she struggles with betrayal of trust and invasion of privacy.

Vollmer was not charged for allegedly filming Benavides. Benavides’ relationship with Vollmer ended more than two years ago, and the filing fell outside the one-year statute of limitations. Benavides remembers nearly hyperventilating in an office conference room when she realized she had no way to justice for what she considers a sex crime.

“If I sit with it, I’m going to spiral. So I said, let’s manifest this energy and turn it into something productive. My way of doing that was by finding the other women,” Benavides said. “I had no other option in my mind. I had to do this. I had to reach out to each victim and let each victim know that I could.”

Benavides immediately took to social media, posting on Instagram and another public Facebook group and urging friends to share. That’s how she found Thomas, the former lobbyist who helps guide women through the legislative process, and several other alleged victims who have yet to come forward publicly.

Farrell, who works in public relations, also discovered the case through social media after meeting Vollmer briefly last year. Police verified her identity in illegal records through her tattoos, but were told she was also outside the statute of limitations and could not press charges.

Thomas said she was outraged when she learned it also fell outside the statute of limitations. But like Benavides, he felt he had to do something. Within days, Thomas invited the other women to her home to help strategize an action plan for legislative change, drawing on the skills of the women in her living room.

“He really messed with the wrong group of women,” Thomas said.

In all, they say nine women have been identified through their social media efforts to spread the word. With legislative changes to increase similar offenses to a felony, they hope that other victims in the future will not have to take an investigation into their own hands.

The women plan to travel to the state Capitol next year to shed light on the crime of illegal photography and push for change for future victims.

“This is me taking my power back,” Thomas said. “I’m regaining my power by speaking up and using my skills and my relationships in the legislature, using my knowledge of how to get a bill passed. I felt it was very important to be the rock these women could lean on in this particular case. . I haven’t looked back since I went public.”