WILLMAR — The Minnesota Court of Appeals has thrown out a revenge porn case against a St. Cloud woman. It’s the second time the court has ruled in the matter.
The Court of Appeals filed a ruling Monday dismissing the Kandiyohi County case against Sahra Abdilahi Ahmed, now 24, finding the state’s revenge porn law violates a person’s First Amendment rights and is unconstitutional. The court issued a similar ruling in December in a Dakota County case.
The Court of Appeals relied on its earlier ruling to reach its decision in the Ahmed case.
Eighth District Judge Stephanie Beckman had twice dismissed the three felony charges for non-consensual dissemination of private sexual images.
In the first ruling, she dismissed the charges for a lack of probable cause. The appeals court ruled there was probable cause and returned it to Kandiyohi County.
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The Attorney’s Office refiled the charges. The defense appealed the constitutionality of the law, and Beckman issued her second ruling dismissing the charges on constitutional grounds, which the Court of Appeals affirmed in Mnoday's ruling dismising the case.
The story of the charges started in September 2017, when a young woman made a tearful phone call to the Willmar Police Department.
The woman said two women, Ahmed and Claudia Lizbeth Jimenez, now 21, had posted a photo on Snapchat of the alleged victim engaged in oral sex with an unidentified man. The woman said her face was visible but the man’s was not.
The young woman said she had asked Jimenez to delete the post, but Jimenez did not do it. An officer went to Jimenez’s home and explained that posting such a photo could be considered a crime, and she would be charged if she posted it again. He asked her to tell her friends not to post the photo.
The next day, Ahmed allegedly had changed her Facebook profile picture to the oral sex photo. Jimenez took a screenshot of Ahmed’s Facebook page and posted it on Snapchat.
The day after that, the woman contacted Willmar police again with more versions of the photograph and provided copies of a Twitter direct message conversation with Ahmed in which she asked to have the posts deleted.
Charges were filed first against Ahmed in October 2017. Charges against Jimenez were filed in January 2019.
Jimenez was charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors. She was sentenced in November after pleading guilty to a gross misdemeanor charge of non-consensual dissemination of private sexual images. She has a court appearance scheduled for May 6.
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Kandiyohi County Attorney Shane Baker did not return messages left for him Monday.
