TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: Social Media Crime

  • Katherine Lester breaks it off

    Katherine Lester breaks it off

    MySpace romance ends on Dr. Phil:

    Everyone’s favorite globe-trotting Myspace runaway teen Katherine Lester was on the Dr. Phil show once again. This time it was to break off the relationship she had with the Arab man known as Abdullah Psycho. To make matters more humiliating for Abdullah is that the break-up was done via satellite.

    “I’m not going to be with you any more,” the 18-year-old told her Palestinian boyfriend, Abdullah Jinzawi, who watched her on a monitor from Jericho, Jordan.
    Jinzawi sat silent for a moment, pulled off his microphone and stepped away from the camera.

    “Well, that’s mature,” McGraw said.

    Earlier on the show, Lester told McGraw — after some prodding — that Jinzawi was emotionally and physically abusive.

    So, is getting dumped via satellite better or worse than being dumped by text message?

    Anyway, it seems that Ms. Lester has finally realized what everybody was saying about her internet boyfriend. Hopefully, this saga has finally come to an end.

  • Anthony Uckele

    Anthony Uckele

    In court, San Jose girl tells of sex with adult she met online:

    Right now, 24-year-old Anthony Uckele of Saratoga, California is facing 36 counts of lewd conduct that could put him behind bars for 78 years.

    He was arrested back in October 2005 for having sex with a 12-year-old girl that he met on MySpace. They’re trying the ‘she said she was 16’ defense, but his actions betray him.

    The girl with the blue stuffed animal – a cloth-covered cat that she hugged closely to her chest – said she called Uckele after reading his first message and agreed to meet him at a Starbucks near her home in Willow Glen. From there, he took her to a video arcade and a park, a pattern they would repeat several times over a period of a few weeks.

    As early as their second meeting – and a few weeks before they had sexual intercourse – the girl said she told Uckele she was 12 and he said he was 22.

    When he drove her home, Uckele dropped her off a block from her house because they knew her father wouldn’t approve of their age difference, the girl testified. Uckele also warned the girl not to tell any of her friends about him, “because he was too old.”

    Eventually, she said, Uckele persuaded her to sneak out of her father’s house at night and meet him a block away. The girl testified that Uckele drove her to his mother’s home in Saratoga, where he persuaded her to undress in his bedroom and have intercourse.

    “I was scared. It was something I wasn’t used to,” she testified in a low voice. “He said, ‘It’s going to be OK. Nothing bad is going to happen.’ “

    After more encounters over the next several months, the girl read about sexual abuse in a library book and decided to tell someone who notified police, Shore said. But before authorities arrested Uckele, they arranged to record a telephone conversation between the pair.

    On the recording, which Shore played in court, the girl said several times that she felt it was wrong for them to have had sex.

    “OK. I didn’t force you to do anything,” Uckele replied. “If you tell someone, I’m going away to prison for 10 years. You’ll ruin my life.”

    And let’s not forget that the age of consent in California is 18, not 16. D’oh. Not only that, but now Uckele is facing a lot more than 10 years. And your life should be ruined, since you ruined that little girl’s life.

  • YouTube rejects mutant monitoring

    YouTube rejects mutant monitoring

    YouTube rejects calls to monitor videos:

    YouTube and their parent company Google are saying they will not monitor their site for videos inciting violence against schools. Much like the video that Pekka-Eric Auvinen posted shortly before killing 8 at Jokela High School in Finland.

    Peter Fleischer, privacy counsel at Google, which bought YouTube last year, said the website was not considering passing more information to the police to avert such events. “Logistically we couldn’t do pre-screening,” he said. “We don’t want to become censors of the web.”

    I fail to see how that would be any different from pulling copyrighted material off their site. They don’t seem to have an issue with that.

    Mr Fleischer said privacy was of paramount importance but admitted there was no blanket ban on passing on information. “If it were child pornography then we would inform the authorities immediately. In the case of somebody doing a video that looks something like hate speech, however, we would remove the account. In most of these cases we don’t report it.”

    Except they don’t suspend the accounts. The accounts for Auvinen and Dillon Cossey were still active after their respective incidents occurred. Cossey’s was even up for weeks after his arrest.

    As long as YouTube allows these hate-filled mutants to post video tributes to mass murderers, they’ll just continue to be the whipping boy whenever one of these events happens.

  • Leonard Pitts Jr. on Megan Meier

    Leonard Pitts Jr. on Megan Meier

    Parents concoct ‘joke’ that leads to shame, anguish, death for teen:

    Leonard Pitts Jr. is one of the few newspaper columnists I respect. Hell, he might be the only one. In his latest column, he gives his take on the death of Megan Meier and his wishes for the Drews. In my opinion, it’s the best take so far on the situation.

  • No apologies to the Meiers

    No apologies to the Meiers

    MySpace hoax victim’s kin seek justice:

    This is an article about the interview Megan Meier’s parents gave on the Today Show yesterday. Where they say that the ‘adults’ who caused their daughter to kill herself have offered no apology. In fact, they’ve done quite the reverse.

    “They’ve absolutely offered no apologies,” Ron Meier told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer on Monday. “They sent us a letter in the mail, basically saying that they might feel a little bit of responsibility, but they don’t feel no guilt or remorse or anything for what they did.”

    Rather, said Tina Meier, the people are upset with her for going public with their story. Last week, while shopping, she ran into the woman who invented the hoax, Tina Meier said.

    “She asked me to stop doing all of this,” she told Lauer. “I told her that we would not stop, that we were going to continue for justice for Megan because we knew what they did.”

    The Meiers have not named the people because they do not want to identify their teenage daughter, who had once been a friend of Megan’s.

    Wow, how in the hell do you become that callous in your life to not apologize but to complain when you caused a girl to kill herself.

    And speaking of not naming them, I’ve decided to lift that restriction since the St. Louis Journal has. And it seems that Curt and Lori Drew are receiving just a modicum of karma for what they did to Megan Meier…

    One night last week, well after most of the families in this quiet community went to bed, a half-dozen police cars sped down Waterford Crystal Drive, lights flashing.

    A man, they were told, had been fatally shot inside a home.

    Neighbors opened doors, peered out windows and watched. As many as 15 deputies, they said, drew weapons and charged the home of Lori and Curt Drew.

    But there was no body lying in a pool of blood. No weapon in Curt Drew’s hand.

    The call was a prank, one of many at the Drews’ home this year. A lawn job. A brick through a window. Threatening phone calls. Paintball attacks.

    The neighborhood is angry.

    But now it’s not just the neighborhood, most of the country is angry.

    Thanks to Dan Fan for the last link.

  • Andre Johnson sentenced

    Andre Johnson sentenced

    Man guilty of sex with teen met on MySpace loses bid for lenience in Lake County court:

    Back in July, I posted about Andre Johnson. He’s a 30-year-old man from Ohio that was on parole for the rape of a 14-year-old girl when he raped another 14-year-old girl. Johnson had met his most recent victim through the girl’s sister but maintained a relationship with her on MySpace.

    Now he’s been sentenced. He has to serve out the remainder of his original sentence, and a judge tacked 8 years on to that for his most recent crime.

    During Thursday’s hearing, Johnson asked the judge to give him a break. Judge Lucci told Johnson he had already been given that chance when he was paroled on the first crime.

    I love how multiple offenders think they deserve a break.

    Anyway, Johnson will also be a lifelong registered sex offender.

  • Megan Meier’s tormentors named

    Megan Meier’s tormentors named

    Blog Readers Out Anonymous Adults that Newspaper Refused to Identify:

    According to this article from Wired, readers of some blogs, not this one, that read the story about Megan Meier have published the names of those responsible for her suicide.

    The St. Charles Journal wrote in the story that it decided not to name the woman and the other adult involved in the incident out of concern for the woman’s own teenage daughter. The two adults haven’t been charged with any crime.

    But readers of various blogs that posted the story were furious with the paper’s decision. By matching certain details in the article with property records, they found the name and address of a woman who they believe created the Josh Evans persona, and published her details online.

    Was the paper right to protect the woman’s identity? Were the bloggers right to publish a name and address that may or may not be correct?

    Even though I think the people involved with Megan’s death are scumbags and I hope eventually they are prosecuted and sent away for a long time, this is nothing more than a blatant case of vigilantism. I also want to add that I will not post their names here.

    Let the law do its job, people. By publishing their names, you’re jeopardizing the chances of justice being served.

  • Charges possible but not likely in MySpace suicide

    Charges possible but not likely in MySpace suicide

    Prosecutor To Review MySpace Suicide:

    The St. Charles, Missouri County Prosecutor, Jack Banas, is saying that there may be criminal charges for the MySpace suicide death of Megan Meier, but he also says it’s unlikely.

    The county prosecutor says he never saw the complete case file. He doesn’t want to give anyone false hope, but he says it’s not yet case closed.

    “Me personally, I’ve never seen anything on this case,” says St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack Banas. He says from what he’s heard he knows hearts are broken, but he doesn’t believe laws were.

    Banas never saw the report but wants to see all the evidence now, but based on what he’s heard he believes what happened was cruel, but not criminal.

    I’m not holding my breath over this one, but I pray to God that Prosecutor Banas can find something to charge the people responsible for Megan Meier’s death.

  • Katherine Lester on Dr. Phil

    Katherine Lester on Dr. Phil

    MySpace teen on Dr. Phil show:

    It seems that our favorite word traveling runaway MySpace teen is back in the news.

    Katherine Lester will be on Dr. Phil today and tomorrow to discuss her trials and tribulations. I thought this might set a bad example to teens willing to run away for some MySpace guy, but Dr. Phil seems to have his act together this time…

    The second segment also will include an interview with Betty Mahmoody, an American citizen who moved to Iran with her husband and fled the country after he and his family became violently controlling. Mahmoody’s story became the 1991 Sally Field film “Not Without My Daughter.”

    I, of course, will not be watching because personally, Dr. Phil disgusts me.

    However, the article seems to reveal that Lester is back in The States.

    The series will have a third part that will air in a couple of weeks centering around Lester’s decision to come back to Michigan, said Wade Simpson, a segment producer with the program.

    “We fully anticipated her getting back on the plane at the end of the second episode,” he said. “And then she said no, so we kept tracking it to see what would happen.”

    Lester returned to Michigan about a week and a half ago, Simpson said.

    The soap opera continues.

    Belch has more on this here.

  • Girl commits suicide over MySpace hoax

    Girl commits suicide over MySpace hoax

    ‘My Space’ hoax ends with suicide of Dardenne Prairie teen:

    This one is so heart-wrenching as a parent that I’m at a loss for words.

    Megan Meier was a 13-year-old girl who had some problems, but things were turning around for her. That was until she got a friend request from someone claiming to be, in Megan’s words, a hot 16-year-old boy by the name of Josh.

    The two remained friends on MySpace for a while, then all of a sudden, Josh started sending disparaging messages to Megan. Comments like “I don’t know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I’ve heard that you are not very nice to your friends.”

    Then MySpace bulletins started circulating about her that said things like, “Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat.”

    It bothered her so much that Megan Meier took her own life.

    That’s not even the worst part.

    Worst Part #1: Josh never existed and this was all done by adults.

    Worst Part #2: No criminal charges are being filed.

    As usual, I’m not paying justice to the story. Please go and read the entire article.

    And to the people who did this to Megan Meier, I’ll just leave you with that I hope you rot in hell.

    Thanks to Belch for the link.

    Now I’m going to go listen to the song Danny Boy to cheer myself up.