A New York professor has been awarded $30 million in damages against her ex-boyfriend after he posted intimate videos and photos of her online after they broke up.
“I think my jaw is still on the floor,” Spring Chenoa Cooper, 43, tells PEOPLE about the award. “I had no idea how the jury would go. And what I knew was that the higher the number, the more I would feel that the jury understood that cyber sexual assault was real sexual assault, that the effects were the same. They understood that this was a terrible crime.”
The associate professor of public health at the City University of New York, who filed a civil suit against her ex-boyfriend Ryan Broems in 2018, says she feels the Manhattan jury “wanted to send a clear message to other survivors and other potential perpetrators that we will not stand for this. ”
Cooper says her nightmare began shortly after she broke up with Broems in November 2017 after 11 months of dating.
Soon after, he started sending her intimate Snapchat videos and messages.
She says she blocked him, but then received a message demanding that she send him intimate pictures or he would “publish me on his ‘slut-exposing blog,’” according to a summary judgment affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.
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Dr. Spring Chenoa Cooper and Ryan Broems.
Courtesy of Daniel Szalkiewicz & Associates, PC
When she didn’t respond, more intimate pictures of her were uploaded to Tumblr, she says.
“Everything in my life changed after Broems first contacted me as Calidaddy26,” she stated in the court filing. “Intimate image after image was relentlessly uploaded online for weeks, often with my name, social media profiles, contact information and other identifying information.”
Strangers started contacting her online and started sending messages to her work email, she says. Some of the people would even threaten to repost the photos. “I’ll post your pictures again, or I’ll post them somewhere more widely,” she says. “Sometimes they would just say mean things to me. Just call me a stupid slut.”
“Whenever there was a new post, I would have to pretend to be nice to the people who were harassing me in order to find out where the post was,” she says.
Cooper says her friends “would constantly help me search and find pictures online and take them down. I had friends who were seriously involved in this process with me and supported me constantly, and it was also a part of their lives. They were committed to supporting me through this.”
Cooper says she filed a police report, but her ex-boyfriend continued to abuse her.
“I spent the night at friends’ houses several nights a week,” she says. “I cried for several hours a day. Every time a new post appeared, I would be hysterical for hours. Literally, it’s like I’ve just been sexually assaulted and I’m beside myself.”
In December 2021, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor unlawful disclosure of an intimate image, according to civil filings. As part of the plea deal, he agreed to enter an abuse partner program and Cooper was granted an order of protection, Cooper’s attorney, Cali P. Madia, tells PEOPLE.
“I was never allowed a single day in court and I was never able to face him for what he did to me,” Cooper said in court filings. “The accused did not pay a fine or serve a prison sentence for what he did… While the accused, perhaps, is allowed to move on with his life. However, I am still stuck in an endless cycle of fear about him uploading my intimate pictures along with my name, employer, title, social media pages and contact.”
Cooper tells PEOPLE that she has a hard time trusting people and is turned on by phone alert sounds. “My phone used to go crazy when I got all these alerts when another post came up,” she says. “My phone has been on silent since 2018. If my friend comes over and starts getting a lot of alerts, I feel traumatized. I have to ask them; do you mind putting your phone on silent? One thing here or there is fine. But when they start coming all the time, it immediately causes trauma. I can feel it coming up. I feel terrified. There are triggers that still exist for me. ”
Although she won $30 million, Cooper, who is now a full-time professor, doesn’t think she’ll ever see the money.
“I would like to get $30 million,” she says. “I would like to give money to research on this. I would like to give the money to other survivors.”
But, she says, “I don’t really expect to get anything.” That’s not why I did this at all. That’s actually the last reason I did it. But the message of the 30 million is clear. The message he sent the jury and that’s what I’m very happy about.”
Broems could not be reached for comment.
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