NAACP chapter president under fire after sending genital picture to teen

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The president of a recently reactivated NAACP chapter in New York admitted over the weekend to sending a sexually explicit photograph of himself "intended for my wife to an individual I was working with."

The revelation by Monroe County Legislator Ernest Flagler-Mitchell came in a statement Saturday less than two hours after his virtual swearing-in ceremony as head of the Rochester NAACP chapter, the Democrat & Chronicle reported. The image of his genitals was sent to a 19-year-old woman who alleges the lawmaker sexually harassed her. 

Flagler-Mitchell said the individual accepted his apology and "assured me that they were not offended." In a statement of her own, the woman claimed Flagler-Mitchell began harassing her after she was a victim in a September 2020 shooting. 

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Monroe County Legislator Ernest S. Flagler-Mitchell admitted to sending a sexually explicit photo to a woman after officially becoming the head of a local NAACP chapter. (Monroe County)

"I am writing this so that you are all aware of the type of person he is," she wrote, WHEC-TV reported. "I am going public and will be asking for his resignation. No one should be in a position where they turned to their elected official for help and are met with unwanted sexual advances and inappropriate messages. I am only 19 years old."

Flagler-Mitchell said he has become the victim of an extortion scheme in connection to the photo and has asked authorities to investigate. 

"I fully believed this matter was resolved at that time, but subsequently I have been contacted both directly and indirectly by politically connected individuals who have tried to use this mistake as a form of blackmail to force me into abandoning the Black and Asian Caucus in the Legislature," he wrote. 

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The Monroe County District's Attorney's Office, which is investigating the matter, did not immediately return messages from Fox News, nor did Flagler-Mitchell. The New York State NAACP did not return requests for comment as well. It was not clear if Flagler-Mitchell will stay on as president of the local chapter. 

The woman has gone to authorities and asked for an investigation by an ethics committee in Monroe County. She believes there may be more women who have been allegedly harassed by Flagler-Mitchell. 

"The fact that he did this to me so swiftly lets me know that he has done this before," she wrote.