Ex-Southeast student gets probation for placing homemade sex video on porn site without woman's knowledge

A former Southeast Missouri State University student was sentenced Tuesday to two years of supervised probation for secretly filming and distributing video of consensual sex between him and another Southeast student in 2014.

Broderick C. Gormley, 20, of St. Louis pleaded guilty last month to second-degree invasion of privacy, a Class A misdemeanor.

In September 2014, Gormley used a cellphone hidden between stacks of paper to film him and a partner having sex in a dorm room, according to the probable-cause statement filed by the Southeast Missouri State University Department of Public Safety. The sex partner didn't know about the recording at the time.

He then posted the recording on two porn sites.

The probable-cause statement said the victim learned of the video in January 2015, at which point Gormley admitted to filming her. The victim said she asked him to remove the video, but he did not.

"I'm not so convinced that this is a [suspended imposition of sentence] case," Judge Scott Thomsen told Gormley while contemplating the state's recommendation the conviction be wiped from Gormley's record upon completion of his probation.

"This wasn't a one-time thing. ... This took some thought and work to get all this done," Thomsen said.

Gormley admitted the wrongness of the act, calling it a "terrible mistake," but appealed for leniency.

Gormley's attorney told the judge the pair dated for at least a year. Posts on social media indicate Gormley and the victim began dating in the fall of 2014, shortly after the video was made but before the victim knew it existed.

The probable-cause statement was filed in February, which Gormley's attorney said was shortly after the pair broke up and more than a year after Gormley told her about the video.

After considering this, along with the fact Gormley now lives in St. Louis, has no contact with the victim and has begun therapy, Thomsen agreed to the suspended sentence. Gormley will not have to register as a sex offender.

During his probation, he will have to continue counseling and refrain from contacting the victim.

"Chalk it up to a stupid 18-year-old mistake, I hope," Thomsen said.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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