Online 'Ridicule' Lands Florida Pair in Jail
by Ashley Craddock =
6:02pm 29.May.97.PDT Taking the ***space metaphor one step
beyond, Florida cops last week
snared two ***nerds under a seldom-invoked 1940s-era state
law that forbids the unsigned
publication of materials subjecting someone else to ridicule,
then invoked a '90s-era
anti-street-gang statute to arrest them. =
On 19 May, Citrus County sheriff's deputies dusted off a 1945
criminal defamation law to
charge Ryan Vella and Christopher Cohen, both 19, with
subjecting their band teacher to
anonymous ridicule. Rather than letting the online harassment
slide as a misdemeanor, the
cops then dragged out the state's anti-gang law, which
allowed them to take the two men into
custody under third-degree felony charges. =
The arrests stemmed from complaints about a Web site Vella
and Cohen posted using Vella's
home computer. The site said that a local high school teacher
and student were ***,
listed their email and phone numbers, and electronically
intoned that the teacher "will die." =
The site also showed the 12th-grade student's traditionally
saccharine prom-date photo -
except that the teacher's head was superimposed over the
girl's face and a banner welcoming
viewers to his "*** life" was slapped on top. =
The two were released on bail - US$9,000 for Vella, $4,000
for Cohen - shortly after their
arrests. =
"Apparently calling someone a *** is the worst thing
you can possibly do in Citrus
County," said Robyn Blumner, executive director of the
American Civil Liberties Union of
Florida. "When the students' parents saw the site, they
immediately called in the cavalry." =
Apart from being obnoxious and bigoted, Vella and Cohen's
apparent mistake was in the
name they gave themselves - the "Wrathlords" - and not
because it's straight out of Dungeons
and Dragons. In Florida legal parlance, a gang is defined as
"a formal or informal, ongoing
organization, association, or group that has as one of its
primary activities the commission of
criminal or delinquent acts, and consists of three or more
persons who have a common
name." =
As founders of the Wrathlords, which included three other
current and former Lecanto High
School students, Vella and Cohen were apparently unable to
give up their fixation with a band
teacher whom they detested. Expressing that hatred - in an
earlier instance, one gang
member allegedly cut the teacher's brake lines - was
apparently the group's raison d'=EAtre. =
"The Web site arrests were the culmination of a long series
of events," Chief Assistant State
Attorney Ric Ridgway said Thursday. The state attorney's
office planned to announce Friday
whether it will pursue the charges. =
But observers say making the charges stick may prove
impossible. "I guess they technically fit
the definition of a gang, but good luck trying to prove it,"
said Investigator Wayne Hom of the
San Francisco Police Department's gang task force. =
And the ACLU say the arrests are a blatant violation of the
pair's First Amendment rights.
"Slapping them with criminal defamation charges is completely
unconstitutional," said
Blumner, who may represent the two men if the Florida state
attorney pursues charges. "They
have a right to publish material as obnoxious or insulting as
they want. The appropriate
remedy is a civil libel suit by the injured parties."