NPR | Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens was indicted on one count of felony
invasion of privacy and taken into custody in St. Louis in connection
with reports of an extramarital affair that surfaced last month.
During
that affair, Greitens is alleged to have taken a semi-nude photo of the
woman and then threatened to blackmail her by publishing it if she
revealed their relationship.
As reported by the Two-Way in January, Greitens, a Republican, confirmed that he had an extramarital affair before he was elected in 2016, but he denied the allegations of blackmail.
"As I have said before, I made a personal mistake before I was Governor," Greitens said in a statement Thursday posted on Facebook. "I did not commit a crime."
As St. Louis Public Radio's Rachel Lippman told All Things Considered:
"Missouri law says that ... taking the picture alone is a misdemeanor. What pushes this to the level of a felony was the fact that he put that photo on a computer, and therefore it makes it sort of a low level felony.
We know about this incident because the ex-husband of the woman who had the affair recorded the conversation and talked about it with the media."
In the wake of the public exposure of the affair last
month, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner opened an
investigation leading to this indictment by a St. Louis grand jury.
The
name of the woman who had an affair with Greitens has not been
disclosed and is referred to only as "K.S." in the indictment.
It
alleges that Greitens "knowingly photographed K.S. in a state of full
or partial nudity without the knowledge or consent of K.S. and in a
place where a person would have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and
the defendant subsequently transmitted the image contained in the
photograph in a manner that allowed access to that image via a
computer."
In a statement, Gardener said it was essential for residents of St. Louis and Missouri to have confidence in their leaders.
