Man Sentenced in Internet Extortion Case

A middle school teacher was sentenced to 60 days under house arrest and forced to give up his two home computers after attempting to extort money from an ex-girlfriend by threatening to release nude pictures of her on the Internet, authorities said Monday.

Brian Keith Bailey, 45, of Tarzana, posted the pictures online after the woman refused to pay him $8,000, according to Loren Naiman, head of the high-tech crime unit at the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Bailey pleaded no contest to a felony count of attempted extortion. In addition to the jail sentence and a $5,000 fine, Bailey will not be allowed to have a computer in his home while he is on probation, a period that could last up to five years, Naiman said.

The sentence was rendered during a hearing Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Van Nuys. The sentence could be reduced to a misdemeanor after 18 months, and the probation period could be reduced to three years, authorities said. The name of the victim was not released.

Bailey works as a teacher at Le Conte Middle School in Hollywood, according to a Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman.

Bailey said Monday in a telephone interview that he committed the crime because his ex-girlfriend refused to repay $5,000 he had lent her. He said the photographs were taken about 10 years ago and that he has since married another woman.

“I realize I made a really bad mistake,” Bailey said. “I was only trying to get back what was owed to me, and I think I went about it in a really bad way.”

Bailey said he got the idea for the scheme after reading about a similar 1998 case involving the radio personality Laura Schlessinger, who lost a court battle to keep nude pictures of her from being released online.

Bailey said the photos were taken with the woman’s consent. He attempted to sell them to the same site that purchased the Schlessinger pictures. When that site declined, he offered the pictures to other sites. Authorities said some of the photos ended up being posted on a site known as an outlet for “voyeur and amateur photos.”

Authorities said Bailey also posted a portion of the victim’s driver’s license online.

Bailey insisted he did not threaten to post the pictures online but warned his ex-girlfriend that he planned to sell the copyright to the photos.

He will be allowed to work during the 60 days he will spend under electronically monitored house arrest, authorities said.