Thursday, March 21st 2024, 4:11 pm
A Tulsa woman has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against a former FBI agent, who's charged with sharing intimate photos of her without her permission.
She is one of three women who went to police last year about Mark Wells.
Tulsa County prosecutors have charged Wells with 13 crimes, 11 counts of disseminating private sexual images, and 2 felony counts of peeping tom.
Morgan says she met Mark Wells on the dating app Bumble, and they hit it off on their first date.
"He was very nice; he held the door. Everything seemed kosher and fine," said Morgan Ballou.
She says, given his job, she felt safe, and he came across as level-headed and calm.
She says they dated for quite some time, and she felt comfortable sending him sexy photos.
"There's a lot of people who don't understand or are from a different generation, not as tech savvy or don't understand that times change. The younger generation, especially if you're traveling a lot, you've got to keep the spark alive in a relationship for sure," said Ballou.
After more than three years, she and Wells eventually parted ways.
She was a year removed from the relationship and had moved on when she got a message that shook up her world.
"I felt like I was in a snow globe, and it was just shaken," said Ballou.
Another ex of Mark Wells told Morgan she had seen one of the sexy pictures of Morgan.
Morgan says she learned others had seen those pictures as well, pictures she believed were private, pictures she never said could be shared.
"There's still a stereotype, complexity, stigma where people are like, well, you shouldn't have taken the pics if you didn't want them shared,” said Ballou.
She and two other women went to the police and the Department of Justice, and a search warrant was served at Wells' home last May.
The affidavit says police found evidence Wells shared nude or sexual pictures and videos of the three women who came forward, plus texted images of three additional women who were identified but did not want to prosecute and eight other women who have not been identified.
Police say they found 55 private albums on Wells' laptop, containing 2,245 photos, labeled by name, and 75 percent of them were sexual.
She also thinks people should stop calling this revenge porn and call it something that better reflects the damage it causes to victims. She calls it intimate image abuse.
Wells has pleaded not guilty to the crimes and waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday and is set to be back in court next month.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a free website to help teenagers remove nude or partially nude photos shared online.
They also have help for adults through the Cyber Civil Rights initiative Revenge Porn Hotline.
March 21st, 2024
September 7th, 2024
September 7th, 2024
September 7th, 2024
September 7th, 2024
September 7th, 2024
September 7th, 2024
September 7th, 2024