A 56-year-old League City political activist has been indicted on a charge of threatening to publish intimate visual material, accused of posting naked pictures of La Marque City Councilman Joseph Lowry on a website in October 2024 and later threatening to charge money for access to more. Mandalyn Salazar is scheduled to stand trial in February 2027, and if convicted, she could face up to two years in a state jail facility.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the indictment accuses Salazar of posting the pictures with intent to harm Lowry and his wife, and the images reportedly identified the couple by name. Prosecutors say Salazar threatened Lowry with exposure of the private pictures and planned to charge money for access to them, per the indictment cited by the Chronicle. Separately, ABC13 reports that court documents describe Salazar sharing private photos of the Lowrys in October 2024 after allegedly obtaining them with the expectation they would stay private, and that she promoted access to the images through a website she operated.
Court documents reviewed by ABC13 also allege Salazar ran an OnlyFans account that was deleted on March 7, 2025, and that between April and May of that year she used a VPN to hide her IP address while an active warrant was out for her arrest. Prosecutors say they intend to show Salazar deleted the OnlyFans account the day she learned she was under investigation, and that she used the VPN specifically to prevent tracking of her online activity, according to the Chronicle's reporting on the case.
A Warrant, a Bond, and a Surrender
A Galveston County sheriff said a warrant had been issued for Salazar on a misdemeanor charge of publishing or threatening to publish intimate visual material, with the warrant dated March 11 and bond set at $5,000, according to The Daily News. The Chronicle reports Salazar turned herself in to police in April, months after the warrant for her arrest was issued. Her case has since gone before District Court Judge Patricia Grady in multiple hearings, the Chronicle reports.
Salazar's attorney, Benjamin Campagna, has sought to prevent prosecutors from describing the case as revenge porn and to limit the state's use of social media content as trial evidence, per the Chronicle. Campagna declined to answer questions about the case when reporters asked. Prosecutors have said they intend to show Salazar posted derogatory images and statements about the Lowrys, shared other people's posts and news articles about the couple, and made social media posts containing derogatory content, according to both the Chronicle and ABC13's review of the court filings. The state has also said several allegations in the court documents are presented as background information related to the case rather than as separate criminal offenses, per ABC13.
Protests Outside Lowry's Home
Prosecutors say they could show Salazar arranged and participated in protests in La Marque and outside Lowry's home, describing that evidence as proposed out of caution rather than as a core allegation, the Chronicle reports. ABC13's review of the court documents similarly notes that Salazar is accused of staging protests targeting Lowry outside his home in October 2024. Some people have characterized Lowry's own posts as harassment, according to the Chronicle, underscoring how contentious the public back-and-forth between the two has become.
A Washington Protection Order and Denied Allegations
The feud extends beyond Texas. A Washington state court issued a five-year domestic violence protection order against Lowry last year on behalf of a woman he had dated, with the order requiring him to stay away from her, according to the Chronicle's reporting, which aligns with The Daily News' account that the order was issued on behalf of Natalie Johnston. The woman sought the protection order after claiming Lowry sent her texts and other messages she interpreted as threatening, the Chronicle reports. Lowry denied the allegations, calling them completely false, and said he would appeal the order, according to The Daily News.
Lowry has said the woman's accusations were fabrications orchestrated by Salazar, per the Chronicle's reporting on statements made to the Galveston County Daily News. Salazar, for her part, filed a sworn declaration supporting the protection-order proceedings, the Chronicle reports. She has also written on social media that she moved to the Pacific Northwest because she felt unsafe in Texas, according to the Chronicle.
Lowry's History as a Political Provocateur
Lowry, described by the Chronicle as a La Marque city councilman and political provocateur, was elected to the council in 2024. He previously led a successful tax rollback election in La Marque in 2022 and unsuccessful recall efforts against Mayor Keith Bell later that year, according to the Chronicle's earlier reporting. He has frequently accused La Marque elected officials of corruption and criminal behavior, often without evidence, per the Chronicle.
Lowry also sued La Marque, alleging the city violated his First Amendment rights by blocking him from posting comments on the city's Facebook posts, the Chronicle reported in its earlier coverage of his back-tax dispute. That same report detailed a Galveston County lawsuit alleging Lowry's company owed $43,868.48 in taxes, penalties, interest and attorney's fees. On the community side, Lowry received a commendation from La Marque for serving hundreds of meals to residents during the February 2021 winter storm that caused power outages across most of Texas, according to the Chronicle.
Salazar's Community Involvement
Salazar, too, has a public record of activism. The Chronicle reports she helped host events addressing teen violence in Galveston County and spoke against police violence as a member of the Dickinson-Bay Area NAACP. La Marque itself has about 20,000 residents, per the Chronicle, a small-city backdrop to a dispute that has spanned criminal court, a Washington protection order, and years of political sparring.
With Salazar's trial set for February 2027, the case will test how prosecutors frame a mix of alleged online conduct — from a deleted OnlyFans account to VPN use and protest organizing — against the backdrop of a long-running political feud between two Galveston County figures.
