Once considered a culinary backwater, the Philadelphia region has transformed into one of America’s hot places to explore all kinds of cuisine. This has produced a long list of celebrity chefs who gain a reputation and build it into one-two-three restaurants with the help of “country club investors.” (See our post of 10/9 last week).
Chefs are an odd lot. Twelve hours a day in the kitchen can produce some strange behaviors and that is the story today in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Alessandro Fiorello is a 30 year old local kid who has done well in establishing what may soon be a third outlet for his cuisine. A local personal injury firm is reportedly providing the capital to help build this empire. Until a cellular phone intervened.
In May, Mr. Fiorello broke up with his girlfriend. In happier times, it seems he/she/they may have recorded some “event” on her phone that involved nudity and/or sex. It is now alleged that during the end days of their relationship, he opened her phone and used his phone to copy the erotic events on her phone. It is further alleged that he decided to share those “events” by sending them via Instagram to a man now dating his former girlfriend. That recipient shared the events with the district attorney.
That sharing has produced criminal charges. Pennsylvania has enacted two criminal laws to address this new penchant for screen sharing. 18 Pa. C.S. 3131(a) if someone disseminates a visual depiction of a current or former intimate partner in a state of nudity or engaged in sex, it is a misdemeanor. It is also a crime to generate an artificial sexual depiction of an individual.
Mr. Fiorello is also charged under 18 Pa C.S. 7501. It is also a crime to “view, photograph, videotape, electronically depict, film or otherwise record another person without that person’s … consent while that person is in a state of full or partial nudity and is in a place where that person would have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
This news appeared in the “Life & Culture” section of the October 14 Inquirer with an endearing photo of the chef at work. Not the publicity his investors were looking for when they helped finance his newest venue in Bryn Mawr, Pa.
While we watch schools debate over child access to electronic equipment, we should pause to realize that in moments of anger, adults can do foolish things too. It’s a possible criminal record and that can disrupt things like applications to borrow or to maintain or acquire a liquor license.
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