An Atlanta man who authorities say Hood created a fake Facebook account and assumed the identity of a female victim pleaded guilty to one count of cyberstalking in Chattanooga Federal Court on Wednesday.
Sentencing has been set for June 16 for 36-year-old Zachary Hood before Judge Charles E. Atchley, Jr.
A federal cyberstalking charge carries a maximum of five years in prison, $250,000 in fines and supervised release for three years.
As part of a plea agreement filed with the court on Dec. 27, 2021, Hood waived indictment by a Federal Grand Jury and agreed to plead guilty to the charge.
Prosecutors said Hood admitted that, using the Facebook account, he sent intimate photographs of the victim to the victim’s friends and associates. For example, while claiming to be the victim, Hood sent photos featuring the victim’s breasts and buttocks to a friend of the victim’s husband, asking if the friend liked those photos.
Hood also contacted the victim’s husband directly, sending the husband nude photographs of the victim and making lewd and sexually suggestive comments about the victim’s appearance.
Hood also contacted eight other women, sending each woman intimate photographs of herself, sometimes accompanied by his own commentary.
This prosecution is the result of a joint effort between the United States Attorney’s Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation offices in the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Assistant United States Attorney Kyle J. Wilson, the District’s Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Crimes Coordinator, represented the United States in court.