Man one ups his wife with Facebook

[Graham Kennedy]

Source

The backstory behind this is that the ex-wife, Angela Voelkert, had created a fake Facebook profile of a 17-year-old girl, named Jessica Studebaker, and then befriended David to try to "get him to talk" in a way that would provide her ammo in their custody battle..... David Voelkert was apparently extremely forthcoming with the fake teen, telling her how he had put a GPS device on Angela's car, and said something about harming Angela. He also spoke of taking his kids and "disappearing." Angela reported this to the authorities, and the FBI stepped in and arrested David over the GPS tracking while investigating the rest.

And that's where the case turned strange.

After holding him for four days, federal prosecutors have dropped all charges against David. Amazingly, he provided them with a sworn affidavit that he'd had notarized before all of the incriminating messages were sent to "Studebaker," a letter saying that he believed his wife was behind the account and was trying to "tamper" with his life.

[Mikey]

Oh, what a tangled web we weave...

The only thing that could make that better would be if the affidavit concluded with the fine print, "... bitch."

[Giuseppe]

Damn. Now I know I'm hooked on Facebook. And I also know that I have a tendency to let my mouth run off on there. But to think that someone might bring it up in court and present it as some sort of proof of intent or anything like that... That's a bit pushing it.

This leads me to a slightly different topic: how representative is someone's online persona to how that person actually talks and behaves in real life? Most people aren't very different online from how they are in real life, but I have met some that seemingly embrace a different personality when they were behind a keyboard.

Also it's also very easy to fake reactions online. It's very easy to misinterpret someone. Then there's some people's habit of simply being asses online, making stupid jokes or outrageous claims and running with them for all their worth. How the hell do you factor in these things when you present what someone said online as 'proof'? How well can these things hold up in court? (and I admit I'm a bit ignorant in this field)

[Mikey]

For me, the difference is generally in mannerisms of speech. It's a lot easier to be grammatically correct online than it is to be in conversation. My general tendencies, though, aren't much different.

As to Facebook, I don't know how much of that would have stood up in court. However, one would do well to remember that current or prospective employers, signifcant others, etc., have as much access to what you post as anyone does.

[Giuseppe]

As to Facebook, I don't know how much of that would have stood up in court. However, one would do well to remember that current or prospective employers, signifcant others, etc., have as much access to what you post as anyone does.

Indeed, I've heard plenty of stories about people that have been laid off due to things they said on Facebook or about employers checking the profile pages of possible future employees. Personally I limit my FB contacts to people I actually know and access to profile information is very limited for those that aren't in my list. I'm not one of those people that thrive on having many hundreds or even thousands of so called 'friends'.

One thing that does annoy me is the difficult process of deleting one's FB account. Sure, it's easy enough to deactivate. Much harder to actually delete; there was even this myth that you can't do it at all. But you can, it's just tedious. I'm not saying I want to do it, I'm just saying that if I ever want to get rid of it, it might prove a bit troublesome. Of course even if you delete your account all the information remains stored in their database; just like Google and the detailed info they have on the queries of each IP, what you searched, what you clicked etc.

[alexmann]

There was someone who got fired after calling there boss an idiot amongst other things on Facebook.

[Captain Seafort]

There was someone who got fired after calling there boss an idiot amongst other things on Facebook.

They deserved it. If only for being such an idiot themselves.

[alexmann]

Im trying to find a link to a pic. If I find it i'll post it here.