photo by: University of Minnesota

Di Wang is pictured in 2024 at the University of Minnesota.

A 33-year-old musician pleaded guilty Monday in a revenge porn case and is voluntarily leaving the United States as part of a plea agreement with the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office.

The defendant, Di Wang, was convicted of one count of breach of privacy, a felony, involving a University of Kansas student who was his former girlfriend.

“I’ve made a mistake,” Wang told Judge Stacey Donovan Monday morning. “I let my emotion take over my judgment.”

After Wang had been with his girlfriend for four years, according to a factual basis for the plea provided by prosecutor Todd Hiatt, the girlfriend broke up with him in 2025. Wang then declared that he was going “to get revenge” and began sharing personal information about his ex on RedNote, which is an online Chinese platform similar to Instagram. This included uploading imagery of the ex-girlfriend in a partial state of nudity, showing her breasts and groin area.

The incident happened in mid-November of last year, and a plea deal was arrived at in March, according to statements by Hiatt in the courtroom. However, the plea hearing was not held until Monday — allowing Wang, a doctoral student in trombone at the University of Minnesota, to remain in the country and graduate with his PhD in May.

At Monday’s hearing, defense attorney Michael Clarke told the court that he “greatly appreciates the way the state has prosecuted this case,” though it wasn’t clear if he was referring to the timing of the plea hearing or something else.

As part of the plea deal, Hiatt also agreed to dismiss a misdemeanor charge alleging that Wang in April of this year parked his car and remained in front of the victim’s home in violation of a protection from abuse order.

Hiatt and Clarke recommended to Donovan that Wang, who has no criminal history, be sentenced to eight months for the felony, suspended to 18 months of unsupervised probation, and that he be allowed to leave the country. Clarke said that Wang would return to China in the next day or two, though he was born in Australia and is a resident there.

Clarke asked for Wang to be sentenced immediately so that he could leave the U.S. quickly. Normally, a pre-sentence investigation is required, which usually delays sentencing for several weeks after a plea hearing. However, in this case, what’s known as a pre-plea PSI had been filed, which Donovan said met the requirement, along with other information provided to her.

Wang’s probation period will not be supervised in another country, but Donovan ordered that Wang’s passport number be given to Hiatt so that the victim can ensure he is not in the United States. Donovan then approved of Clarke returning Wang’s passport to him so that he could depart. She also ordered Wang to pay just under $400 in various costs and fees by the end of the day Monday.

Donovan told Wang that three years after his 18-month probation period expires he can apply to have the arrest and conviction expunged from his record.

Clarke said the expungement would be vitally important for Wang, whose employment as a “concert-level” musician is tied to traveling around the country with a symphony orchestra.

The only way Wang can come back to the U.S., Clarke said, “is if this felony is eventually expunged.”

In concluding comments to Wang, Donovan noted that his crime had impacted both the life of his victim and his own life “greatly.”