A 16-year-old boy has been charged with the rare crime of cyberstalking involving threats made to other teenagers on the Myspace Web site.
According to Lee County Sheriff’s reports:
Deputies received information about the threats from a woman with a private investigations firm in California who was looking into an unrelated case of a missing Sarasota girl.
Vicki Siedow told sheriff’s detectives that she came across the threats on MySpace on an address listed to Joseph D. Carrozza, 16, of 4109 S.W. 20th St., Lehigh Acres.
Carrozza was arrested Monday and charged with a count of cyberstalking a person younger than 16 and a count of cyberstalking a person older than 16.
Each charge, a third-degree felony, carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.
He was booked into the Lee County Jail and later released.
The charge is fairly rare, said John Sheehan, sheriff’s spokesman.
“It’s not everyday that you see something like this,” Sheehan said.
He said it’s hard to tell just how many cyberstalking cases there have been in the past few years because the crime is lumped in under the general state stalking statute.
Good job, Vicki, Sue and the rest of those who worked so hard on this matter. You all did an amazing job and your work exemplifies the best of this industry.
Comment by Denise Petty — January 10, 2008 @ 1:40 pm
Thanks for the lovely article. I would like to correct it a bit, however. I am the lead investigator on this case, however it was Sue Farmer of F.I.S.T. PI in TN who has been doing the wonderful research on MySpace. Her work has been invaluable.
Id like to further comment on PI public relations. We can and should get more press like this. I don’t particularly care If I get credit personally, but it could greatly help our public image, make the public more aware and willing to hire us. More articles like this could really help us with legislative issues. Want to keep SSN access? Do a “good work,” paid or not, and get a press release out (although I didn’t do a release or know this was going to make the news)
Recently I’ve had a number of LEO and public remark how surprised they were when I did something ethical or “above and beyond the call.” Many of us do those things already, so we should make them well known.
Comment by Vicki Siedow — January 10, 2008 @ 2:32 pm