UD student faces felonies after secretly filming sex, sharing film with frat. Know the law

One University of Delaware student is facing felony charges this month for secretly filming sex with another student, court documents show, then showing off footage to his fellow fraternity pledges.

Christofer Miedreich used his iPhone to record having sex in his dorm room, according to documents showing the 19-year-old confessed as much to police, while the woman had no knowledge. Police said the victim described the sex back in February as consensual, that they had similar meetings two times that month before their contact ended. However, she didn’t know about any video until much later.

Over the next few months, she told police she heard from “several” people about a possible tape. She heard it was being shared with others. She heard snippets of detail that sounded consistent with her experience with Miedreich, though she never saw the film.

As another semester began, she reported the incident to University of Delaware police. She walked into the department on Sept. 27 with a complaint about invasion of privacy, police said. Fast forward to today, and Miedreich is facing two felony counts sharing the same name, according to court documents and an alert from the university.

UD did not respond to a request for further comment or to provide data on the prevalence of these offenses on campus.

Do most students understand protections that exist?

Is it illegal to take or share nude images without consent? What about videos you agreed to?

Nonprofit Cyber Civil Rights Initiative published a survey back in 2017 that showed nearly 13% of respondents reported having had a sexually explicit image of themselves shared without their consent or faced threats of the same. About 5% were only threatened. Women were significantly more likely to experience either.

Abuse using technology has risen as access has. Just this school year, a different 20-year-old UD student was accused of sextortion, prompting New Castle County police to warn about more possible victims back in September.

Looking at this surreptitious video recording, laws protect against it and similar actions.

Someone using their phone to take nude or semi-nude photos or videos of you is almost certainly a crime if it’s a place you would expect to be private. Think: a hidden camera in a bedroom or bathroom. If it’s a public park or a nude beach, you may have a harder time protecting that privacy.

In Delaware law, it’s a felony invasion of privacy to both record something like this or share it.

That applies if anyone “tape records, photographs, films, videotapes or otherwise reproduces the image of another person” – whether it’s someone nude, getting undressed, their undergarments or engaging in sexual acts – in any place “where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.” And it’s also a felony if someone “knowingly reproduces, distributes, exhibits, publishes, transmits, or otherwise disseminates a visual depiction” of the same without consent. The latter “depiction” includes a deepfake.

So, even if you originally consented to shoot a video or photo with someone, that does not make “revenge porn” fair game to share without your consent.

It’s also illegal to bug a private residence or install a tracking device in or on a car, without the consent of the registered owner. Some of these codes differ for guardians with young children, when appropriate. Much of this may sound familiar to domestic violence concerns, as it often is.

“If you are a victim or survivor of technology-facilitated sexual abuse, or if you have a client or loved one who has been harmed in this way, it is important to remember that this type of abuse is a serious matter,” writes the National Network to End Domestic Violence. “And it’s not the victim or survivor’s fault. You are not alone.”

UD pointed students toward resources, from student counseling to support services if you think you’ve experienced one of these crimes.

For Christofer Miedreich, the undergraduate student turned himself in to university police, according to an alert from UD, on Nov. 11. That followed a day after official charges. He has since been “separated” from the university, meaning he is not permitted to enter buildings, grounds or facilities and is prohibited from participating in university-sponsored activities.

In an interview with police in late October, the New York native confessed to filming and disseminating the video without consent and confessed he “shared the video with several people” in his fraternity pledge group. Miedreich’s arrest warrant makes no mention of previous incidents, while a “multi-week” investigation by university police also concluded the event is believed to be isolated.

Regardless, police did not mention any other reports of this video between February and when the victim came forward in September.

Got a story? Contact Kelly Powers at kepowers@gannett.com or (231) 622-2191, and follow her on X @kpowers01.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: UD student charged with secretly filming sex, sharing film with frat

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