Texas man faces charges in revenge porn case under state law his senator father helped pass

The son of a Texas state senator is accused of engaging in revenge porn and now faces charges related to a recent law his father helped pass eight years ago.

The former girlfriend of Matthew Schwertner, 21, son of state Sen. Charles Schwertner, a Republican, began receiving threatening text messages from him six months after he broke up with her in July 2023, according to court documents obtained by FOX Austin.

Matthew Schwertner allegedly texted his former girlfriend on Jan. 7, asking her to return various items he bought for her during the relationship, according to court documents. 

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Texas state Sen. Charles Schwertner. His son, Matthew Schwertner, 21, is accused of threatening to distribute explicit images of his former girlfriend.  (FOX Austin)

The woman didn't reply, the documents state. On Jan. 11 and Jan. 12, Matthew Schwertner allegedly contacted her again with an intimate image of her from when they were dating. 

"Want me to send this to your mom instead?" he allegedly asked her. 

When she asked Matthew Schwertner why he still had the image, he replied: "In case you acted like a 2-year-old." He followed up with other messages that allegedly stated, "I'll do it" and "And your sisters, too." 

The woman told authorities the messages continued after she asked Matthew Schwertner to stop contacting her. She also asked him to have his mother contact her instead. 

On Jan. 13, when Matthew Schwertner contacted her again to ask for his stuff, she replied with an image of an Austin Police Department card with a case number. She told him she had reported him to the police and asked him to stop contacting her, court documents said. 

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Austin, Texas, cityscape. (iStock)

"I don't have to delete s---. Hope you don't get too famous or have another boyfriend Imao," he allegedly replied. 

After a back-and-forth, Matthew Schwertner wrote that "It’s ok ur a poor Mexican what can one expect" and "Learn some morals and find god you w----."

On Jan. 14, he allegedly sent the woman several more text messages, including one of her genitals.

Matthew Schwertner was eventually arrested on suspicion of harassment and felony threat to publish intimate visual matter, FOX Austin reported. 

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Sen. Schwertner voted in 2015 to make revenge porn a serious offense as part of Senate Bill 1135. 

The law bars the distribution of an image depicting nudity or sexually explicit conduct under several circumstances, including if the person in the image did not consent to the distribution, the image was obtained or created when the person had an unreasonable expectation that it would remain private and if the dissemination caused harm to the person. 

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"Harm" is not defined in the bill. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to Matthew Schwertner and Sen. Schwertner's office.