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ST. LOUIS • Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens was indicted and taken into custody Thursday for felony invasion of privacy, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner's office announced Thursday afternoon.
About 3:45 p.m., on the first floor of the Carnahan Courthouse in downtown St. Louis, a Post-Dispatch reporter saw Greitens being led down a hallway by several St. Louis city deputies.
Officials later confirmed Greitens was taken into custody and then booked at the St. Louis Justice Center.
Gardner's statement said a grand jury found probable cause to believe Greitens violated a Missouri statute that makes it a felony if a person transmits the image contained in the photograph or film in a manner that allows access to that image via a computer.
The indictment apparently stems from allegations made in media reports last month that, during the course of an extramarital affair, he took a photograph of his bound and partially nude lover and threatened to publicize it if she exposed the affair.
Greitens has admitted the affair but has denied the alleged threat.
The charges claim for the first time that Greitens actually transmitted imagery in connection with the allegations.
"As I have stated before, it is essential for residents of the city of St. Louis and our state to have confidence in their leaders," Gardner said in a written statement.
On Jan. 10, the Post-Dispatch and other area media reported that Greitens, a first-term Republican elected in 2016, had had an extramarital affair near the start of that campaign, in 2015.
The allegation was put forward by the husband of Greitens' lover, based on a surreptitious audio recording he made of a conversation with her.
The woman said in the recording that, during a consensual sexual encounter in Greitens' St. Louis home in which she was bound and partly undressed, Greitens took a photo of her without her consent and threatened her with it.
There was nothing in the initial allegation to indicate that Greitens ever followed through on the alleged threat to disseminate the photo, and in fact the woman said later in the secretly recorded conversation that he'd later told her he'd erased it.
However, Gardner's written statement Thursday indicates there is now an allegation that he did in fact "transmit" the image at some point.
"This statute has a provision for both a felony and misdemeanor," Gardner said in her statement. "The law makes it a felony if a person transmits the image contained in the photograph or film in a manner that allows access to that image via a computer."
Under Missouri law, the crime of “invasion of privacy” includes creating “an image of another person” by any means, “without the person’s consent, while the person is in a state of full or partial nudity and is in a place where one would have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
That offense alone — taking a compromising photo without a person’s consent, even without disseminating it or threatening to — is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail.
Invasion of privacy becomes a felony offense in Missouri if the person taking the nonconsensual picture subsequently “distributes the image to another ... or permits the dissemination by any means, to another person, of a videotape, photograph, or film.”
In that case, the crime is a Class E felony, punishable by up to four years in prison.
Follow the latest developments here.
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens indicted for felony invasion of privacy
ST. LOUIS • Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens was indicted and taken into custody Thursday for felony invasion of privacy, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner's office announced Thursday afternoon.
About 3:45 p.m., on the first floor of the Carnahan Courthouse in downtown St. Louis, a Post-Dispatch reporter saw Greitens being led down a hallway by several St. Louis city deputies.
Officials later confirmed Greitens was taken into custody and then booked at the St. Louis Justice Center.
Gardner's statement said a grand jury found probable cause to believe Greitens violated a Missouri statute that makes it a felony if a person transmits the image contained in the photograph or film in a manner that allows access to that image via a computer.
The indictment apparently stems from allegations made in media reports last month that, during the course of an extramarital affair, he took a photograph of his bound and partially nude lover and threatened to publicize it if she exposed the affair.
Greitens has admitted the affair but has denied the alleged threat.
The charges claim for the first time that Greitens actually transmitted imagery in connection with the allegations.
"As I have stated before, it is essential for residents of the city of St. Louis and our state to have confidence in their leaders," Gardner said in a written statement.
On Jan. 10, the Post-Dispatch and other area media reported that Greitens, a first-term Republican elected in 2016, had had an extramarital affair near the start of that campaign, in 2015.
The allegation was put forward by the husband of Greitens' lover, based on a surreptitious audio recording he made of a conversation with her.
The woman said in the recording that, during a consensual sexual encounter in Greitens' St. Louis home in which she was bound and partly undressed, Greitens took a photo of her without her consent and threatened her with it.
There was nothing in the initial allegation to indicate that Greitens ever followed through on the alleged threat to disseminate the photo, and in fact the woman said later in the secretly recorded conversation that he'd later told her he'd erased it.
However, Gardner's written statement Thursday indicates there is now an allegation that he did in fact "transmit" the image at some point.
"This statute has a provision for both a felony and misdemeanor," Gardner said in her statement. "The law makes it a felony if a person transmits the image contained in the photograph or film in a manner that allows access to that image via a computer."
Under Missouri law, the crime of “invasion of privacy” includes creating “an image of another person” by any means, “without the person’s consent, while the person is in a state of full or partial nudity and is in a place where one would have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
That offense alone — taking a compromising photo without a person’s consent, even without disseminating it or threatening to — is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail.
Invasion of privacy becomes a felony offense in Missouri if the person taking the nonconsensual picture subsequently “distributes the image to another ... or permits the dissemination by any means, to another person, of a videotape, photograph, or film.”
In that case, the crime is a Class E felony, punishable by up to four years in prison.
Follow the latest developments here.
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens indicted for felony invasion of privacy
