Suicide evidence likely out of MySpace hoax trial:
Yesterday the federal judge presiding over the trial of Lori Drew said that he was leaning towards excluding the suicide of Megan Meier as evidence.
Personally, I don’t have any problem with this. I don’t want Lori Drew to have an excuse if she is sent to prison. I want it to be done by the books and iron clad.
Cyber criminals target Facebook users:
It seems the 419 scammers have invaded Facebook. How the scam works this time is that they hijack someone’s Facebook profile then send messages to their Facebook friends asking for $500 under the premise that they’re stranded in Nigeria.
I don’t know about you but I think most of Facebook friends do not go to Nigeria on a regular basis. And if any of my Facebook friends were to ever get a message from me saying I’m in Nigeria you’ll definitely know its fake because I don’t even like to leave my house let alone the continent.
Queens strippers guilty of using two underage girls in romps:
I originally posted about Julio Rojas and Sophie Soto here. The pair have pleaded guilty to seducing teens through MySpace, getting them liquored up, having orgies with them, and making them strip in a Manhattan night club.
Apparently, the New York DA’s office is into giving weak pleas because Rojas is only looking at 8 years and Soto is looking at 6.
Thanks to Gothamist.
Calgary man pleads guilty to trying to lure teens over the Internet:
27-year-old Matthew Allan Armstrong of Calgary pleaded guilty to three differences of luring underage girls over Nexopia. One of the girls was a 20-year-old posing as an underage girl after watching ‘To Catch a Predator’, another was an undercover police officer, and one was actually a 15-year-old girl.
After he was arrested he violated his parole by using an internet cafe to contact another underage girl.
This guy should be put away forever because even the threat of prison couldn’t get him to stop.
There have been some more developments in the trial of Lori Drew.
First, a judge deferred ruling on a motion to dismiss the charges. The trial is expected to take place on November 18th.
In another development, Lori Drew waived her right to a jury trial, opting instead for the trial to be decided by a judge.
I don’t blame her for that one. A jury would weigh heavily on Megan Meier’s suicide and not the letter of the law. However the prosecution needs to agree for the trial to go to a judge and of course, they didn’t.
Strangled teen left on Brooklyn curb with trash:
I feel dirty linking to a Nancy Grace article, however, it at least it serves a purpose.
It’s been over 2 years since the body of Chanel Petro-Nixon was found. She was a 16-year-old girl from Brooklyn whose strangled body was found in a garbage bag like so much trash.
Her killer has still not been caught. Police are still asking for help…
Police are asking anyone who finds Chanel’s cell phone or sneakers to call the anonymous tip line at 1-800-577-TIPS. The cell phone is a Silver Sanyo Sprint phone, model 8200. The shoes are size 6½, white Nike Air Jordan retro sneakers with green trim and the number 14 on them.
A reward of $34,000 is being offered for any information leading to the arrest of the person or people responsible for Chanel’s death.
I know the odds are slim that someone reading this site would have information into her death but it never hurts to try.
Fox Lake man gets 35 years for Facebook sex scheme:
We have another repeat guest today. This time it’s Michael Macalindong. He’s the 25-year-old from outside of Chicago who I dubbed Facebook’s first pedophile.
Maclindong lured teen boys over Facebook into having sex with him. When they refused he threatened to post videos of them on the internet. He was also found to have a large cache of child porn on his computer. In May he pleaded guilty to the child porn charges.
Yesterday he was sentenced on the luring charges and received a sentence of 35 years in federal prison.
Former Justice Dept. Prosecutor Joins Defense in MySpace Suicide Case:
Former federal prosecutor Orin Kerr has joined the defense team for Lori Drew.
Like the other tech geeks, he’s afraid that if Drew’s fraud charges aren’t thrown out that it will open up the floodgates for the government to prosecute every little TOS violation.
For example, I give a fake name and address for just about every service I sign up for. Kerr feels that if Drew is prosecuted that it won’t be long before I’m prosecuted. I disagree. First off, even the government doesn’t have that kind of time and resources to prosecute every little TOS violation. Secondly, all the tech geeks are forgetting one thing, a 12-year-old girl died because of Drew’s sick childish games.
This isn’t about a power grab by the government, this is about justice for Megan Meier. Besides, don’t all you Net Neutrality geeks want government involvement in the internet anyway?
Tolland Man Sentenced 20 Years For Sexual Assault:
One of the earliest MySpace predators that I posted about at this site was one Scott Shefelbine. He’s the balding man in his 30’s who would convince teenage girls that he was 19 and would have sex with them. And if they didn’t comply Shefelbine would turn violent.
To my recollection, he was arrested at least a dozen times and for most of them, his parents would post bail only have him to re-offend before trial. Eventually, his bond was revoked.
Well, today is sort of a joyous day as Shefelbine was sentenced to 20 years behind bars today. If he gets out he’ll be on probation for another 10 years and will be a registered sex offender.
Shefelbine’s dad, who was arrested him himself for hitting a TV reporter, was still in denial over his son’s actions saying that it was simply a case of ‘normal courtship gone awry’. Over a dozen times? If that was my dad he would have said ‘Only 20 years? Give ’em more!
This case also caught my attention because Connecticut’s Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, was constantly in the press for being tough on MySpace yet it takes a predator in his own state to be arrested a dozen times before he stops offending.
S.A. man tied to Vermont sex assault case:
A 3rd man has been arrested in connection with the disappearance and death of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett of Vermont.
58-year-old Kevin D. Grosenheider of San Antonio, Texas was arrested for helping Brooke’s former stepfather, Ray Gagnon, dispose of evidence. Gagnon rented a room from Grosenheider and had asked him to dispose of Gagnon’s computer which is alleged to have contained child porn.
Now here’s where it gets into Whiskey Tango Foxtrot territory…
Gagnon had showed him and a co-worker images of child pornography that Gagnon had received on his cell phone. The affidavit said the images were of a girl in Vermont whom Gagnon claimed to have had sex with. Grosenheider also told agents he later saw the images on Gagnon’s computer at the home on Timber Pond Road, and that Gagnon detailed the sexual assault of the girl to Grosenheider.
Why the hell didn’t Grosenheider go to the police then? If I was renting a room out to someone who turned out to be a pedophile the cops would be there so fast he wouldn’t have known what hit him. Maybe if he called the police Jacques would have heard about Gagnon’s arrest and would have been scared off from kidnapping and killing Brooke Bennett.