A nearly two-month investigation has led to the first charges from Chapel Hill Police under North Carolina’s “Revenge Porn” law.

Authorities arrested 21-year-old Joshua Tyler Lehner on Tuesday on felony counts of stalking, secret peeping and disclosure of private images. The arrest came after a victim filed a report in early January.

That final charge is derived from a law that went into effect in December 2015 across North Carolina citing what is commonly known as “revenge porn,” which is when lewd photos are shared between a group of individuals or on the internet without the permission of the subject of the photographs.

Chapel Hill Police Captain Josh Mecimore said this is the first time the department has arrested anyone on these charges since the law’s inception.

“The victim in this case reported harassment and cyberstalking involving a person that she had been in a relationship with in the past,” Mecimore said.

Mecimore said the suspect in this case continued contacting the victim against her will.

“She’d asked him to stop contacting her,” according to Mecimore, “And he continued to, which led to the harassment. And then he was contacting her online.”

The suspect in this case turned himself into authorities at the Orange County jail, but he is an Ohio resident. Mecimore said that the incident was reported here because the victim lives in Chapel Hill.

“Crimes involving the use of the internet can typically be reported either where the suspect lives or where the victim lives,” Mecimore said, “or where it occurred, if that’s a third place.”

In addition to the three felony counts, Lehner was charged with misdemeanor cyberstalking and violation of a domestic violence protective order.

Lehner is scheduled to be back in Orange County Court on March 24.

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