Couple that sold Dianna Russini-Mike Vrabel photos could be sued

On Friday, we learned that the compromising photographs of former The Athletic NFL insider Dianna Russini and New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel that kicked off a scandal were snapped by a local couple staying at the same Arizona resort.

The revelation squashed rumors that the photographer might have been a private investigator of some kind, and was further supported when photos of Russini and Vrabel cavorting in public years earlier at a casino and bar revealed that the two didn’t exactly go to great lengths to stay out of public view.

One thing the local couple, who sold the photos to the New York Post for a purported four-figure price, might not have considered is that they could find themselves in legal limbo.

Earlier in the week, Michael McCann of Sportico penned a column about the legal issues surrounding the photos and the workplace violations that both Russini and Vrabel may have committed. Specific to the photos, he wrote that, legally speaking, they could constitute illegal invasions of Russini and Vrabel’s privacy and the tort of “intrusion upon seclusion,” which generally means an offensive intrusion into one’s privacy, as well as harassment.

To that point, Ambiente Sedona explicitly limits photography “to times when other guests are not included” in photographs and forbids “taking photos in the public spaces that invades other guests’ privacy.” With those assurances, Ambiente Sedona guests should expect they aren’t being surreptitiously photographed.

The photographs might even be evidence of a criminal act.

In Arizona, it’s a crime to knowingly photograph another person when that person has a reasonable expectation of privacy and that person is having “sexual contact” or is without clothing. In several of the published photos, Vrabel and Russini are in a hot tub or with their fingers interlaced. Even if those circumstances fall short of what’s needed to show a criminal act, the photographs could still give rise to civil claims.

McCann argues that Russini or Vrabel could sue the photographers or the resort, even if it is unlikely, given that both seem to want this story to go away and that doing so would only draw more attention. However, given that the photos sparked a series of events that led to her resignation and irreparable damage to her professional reputation, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Russini might want to exact some form of payback.

Presumably, the couple will do everything they can to stay anonymous. But if their identities do become public, it seems like potential penalties, either criminal or civil, become a little more likely.

At the very least, if Ambiente knows who they are, they’re probably not allowed in the resort anymore.