Browne asks Valparaiso woman’s protective order be dismissed
Va. woman facing revenge porn charges
The volley between two of Chicago Fox 32 news anchor Rafer Weigel’s exgirlfriends continued last week over a protective order sought and received by a Valparaiso woman against Kathy Browne, who was charged with allegedly downloading compromising pictures of the Valparaiso woman off of Weigel’s phone and sending them back to her.
Weigel, 50, who was suspended from his job late last month and has not been charged with a crime, is not directly involved in the matter over the protective order between the two women, though the Valparaiso woman successfully asked for and received a protective order against him in Porter Circuit Court earlier this month. He has one against her in Cook County, Illinois, as well.
The Post-Tribune is not naming the Valparaiso woman because she is the alleged victim of revenge porn when, according to court documents, Browne, Weigel’s ex-girlfriend, accessed compromising pictures of the woman from his phone and emailed them back to her.
Browne, 50, of Richmond, Virginia, was charged in late September with a misdemeanor count of distribution of an intimate image in the criminal case.
The Valparaiso woman asked for and received a protective order against Browne in September. The order was made permanent for two years after an Oct. 17 hearing.
All of the protective orders refer to allegations of harassment at some level. Court testimony in the lengthy hearing for the protective order against Weigel provided the details of a soured relationship between the Valparaiso woman and him, including the texting of nude photos, sexually explicit texts before a meet-up at a Chesterton hotel, expletive -filled voicemail messages and angry emails.
Browne is requesting the dismissal of the protective order filed against her by the Valparaiso woman, said Browne’s attorney, Ken Elwood, and added she never received notice of the October hearing. She also is requesting a hearing on the matter.
“She has the right to request a hearing within 30 days of the issuance of a protective order,” he said. “The harassment is coming from (the Valparaiso woman).”
Anna Hearn, the Valparaiso woman’s attorney, called the requests to dismiss the protective order and for the hearing “frivolous and past the 30-day review date” in an email.
She noted the order of protection was filed and granted on Sept. 30, and Browne didn’t show up for the Oct. 17 hearing, even though she was served by the court and the Valparaiso Police Department, according to online court records.
Additionally, Hearne said Browne lost in a Virginia court on Wednesday when she attempted to obtain a restraining order against the Valparaiso woman.
“Karma bit her (Wednesday) and will continue to do so,” Hearne said. “The harassment by Browne continues. Justice will again prevail as it did in the hearing with Weigel. Browne should just call it a day and move on with her life.”
Hearn filed a response Friday to Elwood’s request for a hearing and for the protective order against Browne to be dismissed, outlining the points she made in the email.
According to court documents and testimony during the hearing for the protective order against Weigel, Weigel and the woman, who is married with four children, began texting one another in the spring after connecting on social media. He was, at the time, juggling relationships with her, Browne and a third woman.
Weigel reportedly sent compromising photos of himself to the Valparaiso woman, who returned in kind. The two later met up at a Chesterton hotel and at Weigel’s Chicago apartment for a sexual relationship.
Weigel, who is single, has said in court the woman said she was separated from her husband and was going to get divorced but when that didn’t happen, he broke up with her.
Browne allegedly found the pictures of the woman on Weigel’s phone and sent them back to the woman and threatened to send them to her children’s school. The woman later went to the Valparaiso police with Hearn, setting off the criminal charge against Browne.
Elwood, though, said Browne sent the photos back to the Valparaiso woman at her request and didn’t threaten to send them to the children’s school. “It was more, ‘What would your children think?’” he said.
The case, he said, is “wrongly charged.”
A discovery conference on the criminal matter is scheduled for Jan. 16 before Porter Superior Court Judge David Chidester. Elwood asked for additional time for the hearing to speak to the Porter County Prosecutor’s Office about a possible resolution of the matter short of trial.
“This is not the distribution legislators were thinking of,” he said.