Memo to bitter ex-wives: Don't even think about snatching a sexy, partially nude photograph of your ex's new wife from their home, posting it on the Internet, and mailing copies to their family and friends. In Texas, that can get you 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine. Michelle Gallion may end up learning that the hard way.
tJust as authorities say she threatened to do, the 31-year-old woman snatched the image from her former husband's Deer Park home in 2001 and subsequently posted it online, the Pasadena Citizen-Online reported April 9.
Threatening an online posting was enough to prod the couple to call police and file a formal complaint, the paper said. But Gallion didn't just post the photo on a Yahoo-based personal Website and stop there - when friends and relatives told the couple they'd received copies of the picture with harassing letters in the mail, that brought the U.S. Postal Service in on the probe.
The investigators traced the Website to a computer at Gallion's workplace and discovered it wasn't enough for her to post the photograph alone, the Citizen continued - Gallion included the 30-year-old woman's home telephone number, prompting a round of harassing phone calls by cyberviewers.
Gallion was arrested April 8 and charged with harassment as well as cyberstalking. She is free on bond with an April 15 court date. Texas is one of 45 states with cyberstalking and cyberharassment laws.
