In ‘revenge porn’ hacking case, man pleads guilty

A man admitted in federal court this week to stealing nude photos from women’s email accounts and selling the images to an illicit website.

Charles Evens, 26, of Studio City pleaded guilty Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee to charges of computer hacking and identity theft, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Evens confessed to hacking into the email accounts of hundreds of women, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement announcing the guilty plea. He sold photos to another man, Hunter Moore, who operated a website where he posted sexually explicit images of women without the women’s permission.

Moore, 29, of Woodland, Calif., sent emails to Evens in late 2011, urging him to send photos. For a batch of photos of one woman, Moore paid Evens $145, justice officials said in the statement.

Moore pleaded guilty in February to the same offenses as Evens.

The men traded in what is often called “revenge porn,” since photos posted on sites like Moore’s are allegedly submitted by exes seeking to embarrass their former girlfriends or wives.

Apart from federal prosecutions like Evens’, California lawmakers made posting such photos a misdemeanor in 2013. Los Angeles prosecutors won the first conviction under the law late last year. More than two dozen other states had enacted similar laws or were considering them.

Evens faces as many as seven years in federal prison, the statement said. He remains free on bond until his sentencing, which is scheduled for Nov. 16. Gee is scheduled to sentence Moore in August.

Twitter: @joelrubin