Two staffers plead guilty after sharing explicit phone videos of congresswoman

Two former staffers for Del. Stacey Plaskett (D) of the Virgin Islands pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges stemming from their circulation of sexually explicit photos and videos of the delegate and her husband.

Juan McCullum, 36, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to disclose sexual images and attempted first-degree unlawful publication of a sexual image, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C.

Dorene Browne-Louis, 45, of Upper Marlboro, Md., pleaded guilty to one federal cyber charge and a D.C. charge of conspiracy to disclose sexual images. 

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McCullum worked for Plaskett from April 2015 to June 2016, according to the release.

He came into possession of the private images of Plaskett, according to court documents, after offering to take the delegate’s malfunctioning, password-protected iPhone to an Apple store in March 2016 to get it repaired. Plaskett gave the password for the phone to the Apple store for the purpose of getting the phone, which contained private, nude images, repaired, the release said.

In July 2016, after leaving Plaskett’s office, he created a Hotmail account and Facebook social media account, using a false name, to distribute and post the images and videos, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. He also encouraged others to redistribute the content in the delegate’s district.

Browne-Louis provided him with email addresses and other contact information to distribute the images, the attorney’s office said. She also distributed one of the nude images to a person who was working on the campaign of a challenger to the member’s primary election. 

In their guilty pleas, McCullum and Browne-Louis acknowledged that they understood their actions did cause, and were likely to cause, emotional harm to Plaskett and her husband, and that they would hurt her reelection bid.

All federal charges in the case carry a maximum one year prison sentence, while the D.C. offenses each carry up to 180 days in jail, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 

The court is now considering a plea by McCullum to suspend all but 366 days if he completes two years of supervised probation and 100 hours of community service. 

McCullum and Browne-Louis were indicted in July by a federal grand jury in D.C. Both have acknowledged the emotional harm their actions caused the House member and her family.