Via Hickey’s Twitter account

Former Capitol Hill resident Matt Hickey and what prosecutors say was his “fictitious talent recruiting company” may be forced to turn over photographs and track down and remove images that have spread across the internet after failing to respond to a consumer protection lawsuit brought by the Washington Attorney General.

Last week, Hickey was found in default in the case in which the tech blogger and photographer was alleged to have created a fake porn business “solely for his personal gain and sexual gratification.”

Hickey is currently being held on three second-degree rape charges in King County Jail and faces charges in a string of sexual assaults in which women said they worked with the photographer “under false pretenses or stated Hickey had sex with them when they were too intoxicated to give consent.”

The Stranger reports that Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson says Hickey’s lawsuit “marked the first time that state consumer protection laws were invoked to respond to a scam like this one.”

The court must now rule on what punishment Hickey will face in the consumer protection case in which the attorney general’s office asked Judge Jeffrey M. Ramsdell to establish that Hickey violated the Consumer Protection Act, block him from any similar activities in the future, “restore” property to victims including electronic and physical copies of photographs taken of the victims, order Hickey to relinquish any rights to those photos, order “that the Photos Defendant obtained through unfair and deceptive conduct are removed from the internet,” and, the kicker, nail Hickey for $2,000 for every violation of consumer laws. The AG also is requesting “reasonable costs and attorney’s fees.”