Have someone posting harassing information or sending repeated harassing emails about you over the internet? The good news is now that behavior is being prosecuted and taken seriously, regardless of the state the offender is is executing the harassment from.
Under California Penal Code 653.2
(a) Every person who, with intent to place another person in
reasonable fear for his or her safety, or the safety of the other person's immediate family, by means of an electronic communication device, and without consent of the other person, and for the purpose of imminently causing that other person unwanted physical contact, injury, or harassment, by a third party, electronically distributes, publishes, e-mails, hyperlinks, or makes available for downloading, personal identifying information, including, but not limited to, a digital image of another person, or an electronic message of a harassing nature about another person, which would be likely to incite or produce that unlawful action, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in a county jail, by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment. (b) For purposes of this section, "electronic communication device" includes, but is not limited to, telephones, cell phones, computers, Internet Web pages or sites, Internet phones, hybrid cellular/Internet/wireless devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), video recorders, fax machines, or pagers. "Electronic communication" has the same meaning as the term is defined in Section 2510(12) of Title 18 of the United States Code. (c) For purposes of this section, the following terms apply: (1) "Harassment" means a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person that a reasonable person would consider as seriously alarming, seriously annoying, seriously tormenting, or seriously terrorizing the person and that serves no legitimate purpose. (2) "Of a harassing nature" means of a nature that a reasonable person would consider as seriously alarming, seriously annoying, seriously tormenting, or seriously terrorizing of the person and that serves no legitimate purpose.
From the Daily Breeze:
Man sentenced in Web harassment case
Los Angeles. A Los Angeles man has become the first person convicted under the state’s new impersonation law for creating numerous fake social networking sites to harass a former girlfriend, the City Attorney’s Office said.
Jesus Felix, 22, was charged by the city attorney’s Cyber Crime and Child Abuse Prevention Unit with using the fake accounts to annoy the 16-year-old girl.
Felix on Tuesday entered a plea of no contest to two misdemeanor counts of violating the new impersonation code section and one count of making harassing phone calls. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Yvette Verastegui sentenced Felix to five years’ probation, 30 days’ road work and a year in jail unless he completes counseling plus anger management and sex therapy classes. Felix was ordered to stay away from the victim and have no Internet access during his probation.
The City Attorney’s Office said that from January to March Felix created 130 Facebook pages and numerous Craigslist listings with photographs of his former girlfriend. The victim’s mother discovered several online profiles containing her daughter’s contact information and sexually explicit photographs. Felix also called and harassed the mother several times.
The Internet impersonation statute became law Jan. 1. Deputy City Attorney Tracy Webb prosecuted the case.
- Larry Altman
For more information on what you can do if you are being harassed online visit www.cybercrime.gov
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