Dani Mathers has been charged for invasion of privacy after she took a secret photo a naked woman in a gym locker room and posted it to social media.
The former Playmate of the Year will now face criminal prosecution proceedings, after the Los Angeles city attorney’s office filed charges against her on Friday.
Invasion of privacy charges can be bought against peeping Toms and others who conceal cameras to take sexually suggestive photos of women. But US legal experts have commented it’s rare to bring charges against someone over photos making fun of a person’s weight.
Playboy model who bodyshamed gym woman could be jailed
Dani Mathers – Playboy’s ‘2015 Playmate Of The Year’
The 29-year-old allegedly shared the photo mocking the naked woman to Snapchat in July. The photo also included an insulting comment about the woman’s body: “If I can’t unsee this then you can’t either.”
The social media posting was reported to the police by the gym, LA fitness, which also revoked her membership for life.
The post came under heavy fire online for “body shaming”, and according to reports Dani later apologised and deleted her social media accounts.
“There is no excuse,” she wrote on Twitter. “I understand fully the magnitude of this post that I have hurt a lot of people, women. Body shaming is not okay…and not something to joke about.”
If she is convicted, she could face up to six months in jail and a US$1000 fine, City News Service reports.
The woman in the photo has been identified as a 70-year-old woman, and it is not known whether she was aware she was being photographed or not.
Dani claims she accidently posted the photo in July and was only trying to send the image to a friend.
“That was absolutely wrong and not what I meant to do,” she said in an online video. “I know that body-shaming is wrong. That is not the type of person I am.”
