A federal judge has tentatively rejected two motions to dismiss charges against a woman in a MySpace hoax that allegedly led to a 13-year-old girl's suicide.
During a hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge George H. Wu said he intends to take more time to consider a third motion to dismiss the case against Lori Drew of O'Fallon, Mo. She is accused of helping create a false-identity account on the social networking site and harassing her young neighbor with cruel messages.The girl subsequently hanged herself in 2006.
Drew has pleaded not guilty after being indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles.
A defense attorney previously argued that prosecutors are bending a cyber crime statute to prosecute his client on charges of conspiracy and accessing computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress.Wu set an Oct. 7 trial date.
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(February, 1996) BRIDGEWATER, New Jersey (AP) -- A man filing for divorce accused his wife of carrying on a "virtual" affair via computer with a cybersex partner who called himself "The Weasel."Diane Goydan's relationship with the man apparently never was consummated, but her husband, John Goydan of Bridgewater, claimed the pair had planned a real tryst this weekend at a New Hampshire bed and breakfast.Goydan filed divorce papers January 23 that included dozens of e-mail exchanges -- some sexually explicit -- between his wife and a married man she met on America Online. The man, whose on-line name was The Weasel, was identified in court papers only as Ray from North Carolina.In a November 23 message, The Weasel wrote: "I gotta tell you that I am one happy guy now and so much at peace again anticipating us. I love you dearly. XXOOXX."Goydan is now seeking custody of the couple's two children, ages 3 and 7.Goydan's lawyer, Richard Hurley, said Mrs. Goydan apparently believed the e-mail messages could not be retrieved, but her husband was able to pull them off the computer and store them on a disk.That raises some privacy concerns, such as what rights spouses have to each other's communications, said David Banisar, spokesman for the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington."If it's a shared computer, then the spouse has equal rights to get on it and share what's on it," Banisar said. But if the husband gained access to her e-mail on line, that could violate her privacy rights, similar to a husband tapping his wife's telephone. "It's still pretty undefined in the law," Banisar said.The divorce papers do not say exactly how Goydan retrieved the messages. Goydan began saving his wife's e-mail every day after surprising her as she was printing out something on the computer when he came home from work early. When Goydan later switched on the computer, it told him there was something waiting to be printed, and he discovered a message to his wife from The Weasel.The lawsuit claims Mrs. Goydan promised that day to end [Internet Affair] the relationship but later that night sent The Weasel a message that they had been caught. Weeks later, she messaged: "I just have to learn to be more careful. ... I want so badly to be with you that I am willing to chance it."Reached by telephone at home, Mrs. Goydan said, "You're kidding me" and hung up.ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE
As you can see -- we have a new design. However, it needs a lot of work so please bear with us over the next couple weeks as we tweak things.The blog was looking messy and jumbled... as our site grew the design tried to grow with it. Finally we chose to upgrade.We hope to make it cleaner and more accessible. We still have LOADS of links to put back up so if you don't see what you want -- come back in a couple days! We are working hard to get back to normal.Keep reading -- we will continue our consistent updating of posts!Thank you,The Fighter Team
A Wilmington, North Carolina man faces a charge of cyberstalking after a Gastonia man told police he e-mailed death threats.
Keith Bailey, 39, told Gastonia Police that Melvin Franklin Douglas Lutz, 38, sent him threatening messages.
Bailey gave Gastonia Police an e-mail message sent May 24, 2007, where Lutz writes that Bailey had messed up their business and lied about raising profits.
"I sold my home out of desperation because of my legal responsibilities. You used that money to buy a motorcycle...," Lutz wrote via e-mail.
"This is a declaration of war. I am going (to do) everything I know to destroy your life both metaphorically (sic) and in reality. Every word out of your mouth is a lie, the world will be a much better place once I put you 6 feet under."
Bailey responded to his message with an e-mail of his own.
"What the hell are you talking about? I don't talk about you, think about you or do anything to you," Bailey wrote. "I have my own problems to deal with thanks to trying to help you and I don't have time to "(expletive) up" anything you're doing. I haven't a clue what you're doing, planning to do or have don't and don't want to know unless I have to."
Lutz faces a charge of cyberstalking and is in Gaston County Jail under a $1,000 secured bond.
By JOSEPH SLACIANEmily Jones received a startling call from her pastor in March.
The pastor, who was taking a new position out of state, was adding members of his congregation to his Facebook account to keep in touch with after the move. He found a Facebook page - an Internet socializing network - that purportedly belonged to Jones.He called her after viewing the page, Jones said, because “he was concerned I had fallen away from my Christian walk.”The site, in Jones' words, contained “the worst smut, X-rated material you could imagine.”Ryan Brown, a sound technician at Jones' church, had created Facebook pages for Jones and her younger sister, Haley Flanagan, each containing obscene material about the two of them.Brown admitted making the pages to Wabash police and was charged with two counts of stalking and two counts of harassment. He plead guilty to the harassment charges on Wednesday in Wabash County Superior Court.“That's just a slap on the wrist,” the girls' mother, Cindy Flanagan, said of the probable sentence provided for in current law during a Plain Dealer interview before the hearing in Wabash Superior Court. “If he would have to file as an Internet predator or a sex offender, they could take the Internet away from him for two years.”Jones, married and the mother of two young children, said, “Harassment to me is when someone says, ‘Hey, pretty girl,' and you feel uncomfortable. This is worse than harassment.”Cindy Flanagan quickly added, “This is molestation.”But, as the Flanagans and Joneses learned in the six months since the pages were discovered, Indiana doesn't have laws to punish the type of cyber-stalking the two young ladies have been subjected to for two years.The family, with the help of State Rep. Bill Ruppel, Attorney General Steve Carter, Mayor Bob Vanlandingham and others, are trying to get laws enacted in Indiana against cyber-stalking. They said they are ready to go as far as testifying before the Indiana Legislature to make their case for tougher measures.“It's not going to help our case currently,” Jones said, “but the next time someone does it, and if they get caught, they could be punished as a sex offender. It definitely is a sex crime.”Facebook is an Internet social network popular among teens and young adults as a way to interact with people around the world on the computer. (The company closed the fake pages after being notified by authorities.)Because the site was seen worldwide, the sisters fear for their safety.The sisters have taken self defense courses, and other measures to protect themselves.What makes it even more disgusting, Jones said, is to think of the number of men around the world who have conversations over the computer with Brown, thinking they were actually talking to one of the sisters.“It scares you,” she said. “These people have been having ‘relations' with us for two years. They know where we live. Our safety is definitely a concern.”
Coming forward has taken a lot of courage.“It's scary to come forward,” Jones said. “But, if someone does it again, we need to have laws in place so they can be punished.”ORIGINAL
