What Can I Do About A Co-Worker Threatening to Expose Our Affair?

Full question:

I had an affair with a coworker. He has shown some explicit pictures to other coworkers that I had sent to his phone and is threatening to send them to my spouse if I reported him for doing anything wrong in the workplace. I live in Texas and I am unsure as to the proper thing to do. We work in the healthcare field and the pictures that he has shown to others has been humiliating.

• Category: Privacy
• Date: 04/07/2025
• State: Texas

Answer:

It may be possible to file a claim based on copyright infringement, invasion of privacy, or blackmail. You may also consider trying to transfer or change jobs. Copyright infringement is the violation of any exclusive right held by the copyright owner. The general rule is that the author - here, the photographer -- is the owner of the copyright.

Invasion of privacy involves making something public in which a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. It's not enough to argue that the photos were private; you must be able to prove that you and the men had an agreement never to share them with the outside world.

Blackmail is a form of extortion in which the threat is to expose embarrassing, damaging information to family, friends or the public in exchange for payment of money or other advantage. It is a form of extortion, but differs in that extortion involves depriving someone of property.

Please see the following TX statute:

§ 31.02 PENAL Consolidation of Theft Offenses

Theft as defined in Section 31.03 constitutes a single offense
superseding the separate offenses previously known as theft, theft by
false pretext, conversion by a bailee, theft from the person,
shoplifting, acquisition of property by threat, swindling, swindling by
worthless check, embezzlement, extortion, receiving or concealing
embezzled property, and receiving or concealing stolen property.