WASHINGTON — Two former staff members of a delegate to Congress from the U.S. Virgin Islands were indicted Thursday for allegedly circulating nude pictures and videos of her and her husband that authorities said were stolen from the delegate’s cell phone. 
 
 Juan R. McCullum, a former staffer for the delegate, distributed photos of the couple on social media in July 2016, according to the federal indictment. McCullum also sent a text alerting another then-staffer, Dorene Browne-Louis, of what he had done, as well as sending her several of the pictures and videos, according to prosecutors. 
 
 The federal indictment refers to the victim as only “Delegate S.P.” But Democrat Stacey Plaskett, a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives from the U.S. Virgin Islands, issued a statement Thursday evening thanking law enforcement and saying she was the victim of "egregious acts." 
 
 "Last year, my privacy was invaded, which was followed by an organized smear campaign and defamatory press reports concerning both me and my family," Plaskett said. "I was informed today that preliminary arrests had been made of individuals who were involved in those illegal acts. I am deeply grateful to the Capitol Police and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for their thorough and in depth investigating the crimes committed against me, and those who I love." 
 
 Plaskett said in her statement that the investigation was continuing and she could not comment further. 
 
 The case began when McCullum offered to assist his boss in repairing her iPhone in March last year, according to the indictment. She provided McCullum with the phone’s password and he took it to a Washington, D.C., Apple store. Authorities say the device contained the images and video that would later leak online. 
 
 McCullum stopped working for Plaskett in June 2016, a month before the explicit images appeared online. 
 
 Prosecutors allege McCullum created a Hotmail email account under a fake name and sent at least 11 messages containing the images to politicians, reporters and other people familiar with the delegate. He then created a Facebook account using the same bogus identity and uploaded the content, even “friending” the Plaskett's challengers in her upcoming primary contest. 
 
 A forensic investigation by the authorities found Browne-Louis had deleted multiple texts and emails from McCullum revealing the phony accounts, according to the indictment. 
 
 McCullum faces two counts of cyberstalking and Browne-Louis faces two counts of obstruction of justice. Browne-Louis has pleaded not guilty, while McCullum has yet to appear in court. ||||| Last week on July 4 we commemorated the Declaration of Independence, the affirmative document outlining the ideals of equality and democracy and upheld as a model around the world. For a small group of Americans, this year is also a centennial milestone. It marks 100 years that the people of the Virgin Islands have been part of the United States and have the honor to be part of Fourth of July celebrations. What many Americans are unaware of is the great importance of July 3 to Virgin Islanders. 
 
 July 3 marked the 169th anniversary of the United States Virgin Islands Emancipation Day. In 1848, 15 years before President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, enslaved Virgin Islanders under Danish rule organized and executed their own armed rebellion and won their freedom from chattel slavery. Those people of the Virgin Islands and Haiti executed the only successful violent overthrows by those enslaved in the Western Hemisphere. 
 
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 Throughout this year, the islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John will commemorate the centennial of the United States’ purchase of the Virgin Islands. The U.S., in its costliest per-acre land purchase, paid $25 million in gold bullion for these islands with strategic military locations for protecting the Caribbean Basin and the Panama Canal. This sale, however, occurred without a vote by the native Virgin Islanders. 
 
 Virgin Islanders then spent a decade as citizens without a country, and now, alongside fellow territorial residents, hold no electoral votes and have no voting representation in Congress. Disenfranchisement in territories was originally a temporary step on the path toward statehood, but it has become a means to maintain the doctrine established by the Plessy v. Ferguson-era Supreme Court of “separate and unequal” status for the overseas territories. A federal appeals court decision, the Obama administration brief in Tuaua v. United States in 2015 and Congress’s unwillingness to grant equal treatment requests made by territorial representatives all uphold that unequal status. 
 
 As a consequence of this disparate treatment, the Virgin Islands does not receive the same proportion of support in federal dollars as do states for school funding, roads and healthcare. The federal government matches 14 cents to every dollar of territorial funds but 30 cents to every dollar of other state funds. 
 
 In 1917, Virgin Islanders came to Washington to petition for not only citizenship, but also the responsibilities thereof, demanding to be included in the draft, committing our sons to defend this country. This tradition of patriotism continues today, with Virgin Islanders giving the ultimate sacrifice in military conflicts at three times the national average. These brave service members fight for a commander in chief they do not elect and protect the ideals of a nation that are not fully extended to them and their families. 
 
 Our territorial status is eerily similar to the status of the original 13 colonies. The colonists we commemorate every year revolted and wrote the Declaration of Independence because they were controlled by a government in which they held no representation. Today, territorial residents face the same treatment. How can we herald the actions of our Founding Fathers while simultaneously depriving fellow Americans of the same rights those Founding Fathers fought so hard to achieve? Just as the colonists, we are subjected to the laws of an un-representational government. But just as the colonists, we will not stop fighting for the same representation that every other great American enjoys. A people who have made great contributions to this country — including Alexander Hamilton, Denmark Vessey, and Tim Duncan — still do not have equal citizenship. Democracy is not complete. 
 
 Plaskett represents the United States Virgin Islands’ at-large district in the United States House of Representatives. Plaskett currently serves on the House Committee on Agriculture and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Plaskett is the ranking member on the Oversight Subcommittee on the Interior, Energy, and Environment. 
 
 The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill. ||||| Former employees indicted for leaking nude images of Virgin Islands delegate 
 
 Two former employees of Stacey Plaskett, Congress’ delegate from the Virgin Islands, have been indicted in connection with the circulation of nude images of Plaskett and her husband. 
 
 One former aide, Juan McCullum, was charged with two counts of cyberstalking, and the other, Dorene Browne-Louis, faces two obstruction of justice charges in a case investigated by the U.S. Capitol Police and prosecuted by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. 
 
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 According to authorities, both aides worked for Plaskett for more than a year before they departed in mid-2016. The images had been circulated widely by late July 2016 and Plaskett confirmed at the time they had been stolen from her. 
 
 According to the U.S. attorney’s description of the charges, in March 2016, Plaskett asked McCullum to take her iPhone to an Apple store for repairs. While he had her phone, he created Hotmail and Facebook accounts under a pseudonym to distribute and post nude images of Plaskett and her spouse. He used these social media accounts to encourage others to spread the images and videos around Plaskett’s congressional district, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. 
 
 McCullum allegedly alerted Browne-Louis to his actions, who later deleted his text messages from her phone and gave “false, incomplete, and misleading statements” to law enforcement about her knowledge of McCullum’s actions. She is due to appear in federal court on July 19, while McCullum’s first appearance has yet to be scheduled. 
 
 The allegations, if proved, would represent a shocking betrayal by the delegate’s own staff, and a turnabout from her initial suggestion that her political enemies had hacked her computer and distributed the files. 
 
 “The theft and distribution of these personal images via the internet marks a new low in Virgin Islands politics,” she said at the time. “I am shocked and deeply saddened that someone would stoop to such a level as to invade my marriage and the love of my family in an attempt to besmirch me politically.” 
 
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 “Private photographs shared between my husband and me, as well as a private playful video of our family, including one of our children, were illegally obtained and disseminated via the internet. To say my family and I are greatly upset would be a tremendous understatement," Plaskett added. "As a mother I am outraged that one of my children was exploited in such a way. The theft and dissemination of these images via the internet is a shockingly disgusting invasion of my family’s and my privacy - not to mention criminal acts in violation of both territorial and federal law." 
 
 Plaskett, a lawyer and former congressional staffer, is in her second term as a delegate. 
 
 This article tagged under: Congress ||||| Two former staff members have been charged in the circulation of nude images and video of an elected representative to Congress and her husband, federal prosecutors and the U.S. Capitol Police announced Thursday in Washington. 
 
 Juan R. McCullum, 35, of Washington, was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of cyberstalking, and a co-worker, Dorene Browne-Louis, 45, of Upper Marlboro, Md., was indicted on two counts of obstruction of justice, said U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Channing D. Phillips and Capitol Police Chief Matthew R. Verderosa in a statement. 
 
 The charging documents state that both defendants worked for the same official, who is identified in the filings by the initials S.P. 
 
 Virgin Islands Del. Stacey Plaskett (D), confirmed Thursday in statement that she is “S.P.,” saying that “last year, my privacy was invaded, which was followed by an organized smear campaign and defamatory press reports concerning both me and my family.” 
 
 Plaskett said of her family that “we continue to be saddened by the damage we suffered as a result of those egregious acts,” while thanking investigators for their work and people in the Virgin Islands for their support. 
 
 A 2003 photo of Juan McCullum when he was a Mississippi State student body vice president. (Joe Ellis/The Clarion Ledger, via AP, File) (Joe Ellis/The Clarion Ledger/via AP) 
 
 Some of the personal photographs surfaced on the Internet in July 2016 shortly before a primary election. 
 
 According to the indictment, McCullum worked from April 2015 until June 2016 in the House member’s legislative office in Washington. Browne-Louis worked in the same office from January 2015 until April 2016. 
 
 Public staff records show both worked for Plaskett during those times, McCullum as a legislative counsel and Browne-Lewis as a scheduler. 
 
 According to an indictment handed up Tuesday and unsealed Thursday, McCullum offered in March 2016 to help take a House member’s malfunctioning, password-protected iPhone to a local Apple store to be repaired. 
 
 McCullum was not given permission to take, copy, or distribute any of the contents of the iPhone, which contained the private, nude images and videos, authorities alleged. 
 
 In July 2016, when the personal images appeared on the Internet, Plaskett condemned the public unauthorized distribution of private photographs she had shared with her husband, Jonathan Buckney-Small, and the posting of a “playful video of our family,” that included one of their children. 
 
 “To say my family and I are greatly upset would be a tremendous understatement,” she said at that time, adding that the dissemination of the images was “a shockingly disgusting invasion of my family’s and my privacy — not to mention criminal acts . . .” 
 
 Browne-Louis pleaded not guilty before a U.S. magistrate Thursday to the obstruction of justice charges, which carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and was released on personal recognizance, authorities said. Her attorney declined to comment Thursday. 
 
 McCullum has not yet appeared in court on charges that carry a maximum of five years in prison. 
 
 Attorneys for McCullum could not immediately be identified. 
 
 In July 2016, after McCullum left the congressional member’s staff, he allegedly created a Hotmail account and a Facebook account under a fake name to post the material and encouraged sharing it, the indictment states. The indictment also alleged that McCullum texted Browne-Louis as early as July 2, 2016, and emailed her some of the material. 
 
 Federal investigators launched an investigation within days, and alleged that Browne-Louis deleted McCullum’s texts from her phone and gave false and misleading statements to them and the grand jury. Browne-Louis is set to return to court Wednesday. 
 
 Congressional employment records show that after McCullum left Plaskett’s office, he worked for a few months in 2016 for Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.). A spokeswoman for Wilson declined to comment Thursday. 
 
 In 2015 McCullum, posing with his English bulldog, was cited in an annual list of the “50 Most Beautiful” by the Hill, which said he had been a former reality TV star known as “Pretty” on VH1’s “I Love New York.” 
 
 Plaskett, 51, a lawyer and former New York City prosecutor and Justice Department official, was overwhelmingly reelected to her second House term last year after winning an August Democratic primary with 85 percent of the vote.
– Almost exactly a year ago, in July 2016, a "playful" family video and a handful of private nude images shared between husband and wife were posted online by an anonymous user who encouraged people to distribute them widely, per Politico. But the content wasn't about just anybody, it featured a House of Representatives member—and her staffers may have been behind it. This week, two former staff members of Virgin Islands Del. Stacey Plaskett (D) were charged in the circulation of the private material, reports the Washington Post. Juan McCullum was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of cyberstalking, and Dorene Browne-Louis was indicted on two counts of obstruction of justice. NBC News reports that McCullum has yet to appear in court, while Browne-Louis has pleaded not guilty. Though she was named only by her initials in the court documents, Plaskett confirmed her identity and said in a statement that her privacy was invaded last year, "followed by an organized smear campaign," just before election time. She says she and her family "continue to be saddened by the damage we suffered as a result of those egregious acts." The indictment alleges that McCullum accessed private content after offering to take a House member's malfunctioning iPhone (Plaskett's phone, per NBC) to a local Apple store to be repaired. He left Plaskett's staff in June, shortly before the images were posted under a fake name online. Plaskett, who was re-elected with 85% of the vote, made news this week when she wrote in the Hill about the "eerily similar" status of the Virgin Islands to the original 13 colonies, calling it an "ironic state of freedom without democracy."