Woman Caught Trying To Frame Ex-Boyfriend With Threatening Texts She Wrote Herself

from the yeah,-that's-not-going-to-work dept

Mon, Jul 12th 2010 1:13pm — Mike Masnick

All too often, we hear about law enforcement folks complaining about the evils of pre-paid mobile phones, with the idea being that someone (a terrorist?) might use them with no way to track them down. As with the open WiFi bogeyman, it seems that people are ignoring traditional detective-work. Take, for example, this story that reader Stan sent in, of a woman who tried to falsely frame her ex-boyfriend and his sister-in-law by purchasing a pre-paid phone in her sister-in-law's name, sending herself threatening text messages, and then going to the police and accusing the ex- and the sister-in-law of being behind them. While the police did initially arrest the pair, further investigation (by the sister-in-law and ex-) led them to the store where the woman purchased the phone. The salesman there identified the woman as buying it while pretending to be the sister-in-law. Then, the police began investigating where the threatening texts were sent from (I'm assuming they subpoenaed the phone company for tower info), and the location matched with where the text-forging woman was at the time. So, instead the police arrested her and she's now been sentenced to a year in jail.

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Filed Under: framing, prepaid mobile, texts, threats

18 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2010 @ 1:45pm

Threatening text will get you and those you know thrown in jail /w hearsay proof? really?
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- Phillip Vector (profile), 12 Jul 2010 @ 2:12pm
  
  Re:
  How is tower information hearsay?
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  - Billy (profile), 12 Jul 2010 @ 2:48pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Tower information is not hearsay. They were arrested before the tower info was obtained, thus, arrested on hearsay.
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    - Phillip Vector (profile), 12 Jul 2010 @ 4:48pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Ah. I misread. Apparently, It is the ex who had jail time. Wasn't it? Didn't she get jail time after the tower info?
      
      Her ex-boyfriend and his sister-in-law didn't get jail time from what I read.
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- McCrea, 12 Jul 2010 @ 6:03pm
  
  Re: in custody
  "They were arrested on false charges of making criminal threats and required to post thousands of dollars in bail. The sister-in-law was arrested three times, and spent some time in custody before she could gather enough funds to pay the bail on her third arrest."
  
  The sister-in-law spent some time in custody, which could mean jail.
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  - McCre, 12 Jul 2010 @ 6:05pm
    
    Re: Re: in custody
    Dang, I definitely quote too much. Copyright infringement, sorry.
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ECA (profile), 12 Jul 2010 @ 1:46pm

Fun isnt it.
Cops are only there to arrest you..

Judges only to take and decide Information..

WHO acknowledged the charges from the Lady, and did the follow thru?

1. take the complaint
2. CHECK the complaint
3. arrest someone..

What happened to #2?
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- Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2010 @ 1:55pm
  
  Re: Fun isnt it.
  2. Check The complaint.
  Police: call CellPhone Company. Who is the person that owns 555-1212
  CellPhone Comapny: The name we have in our system for that number is SisterInLaw.
  Police: Thank You
  
  move to Step 3.
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  - Dark Helmet (profile), 12 Jul 2010 @ 1:59pm
    
    Re: Re: Fun isnt it.
    "1. take the complaint
    2. CHECK the complaint
    3. arrest someone.."
    
    4. ????
    5. PROFIT! (For the court system and lawyers)
    
    Holy shit! This time it actually worked!
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    - interval (profile), 12 Jul 2010 @ 3:52pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Fun isnt it.
      Ha ha ha!
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Keven Sutton, 12 Jul 2010 @ 1:47pm

Evidence
I would hope that the police checked the receiving phone to see what number the threats were coming from (if you were buying a pre-paid phone and already had a phone, why would you let someone know who you were if the entire purpose of buying the phone was to threaten them in an illegal manner?). I'm sure there were plenty of vectors for the truth to come out on this one, from phone records to possession of the offending phone.
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- Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2010 @ 1:51pm
  
  Re: Evidence
  "Deputy District Attorney Mena Guirguis said that after Manunga and her former boyfriend stopped dating in 2008, she took out a pre-paid cell phone in his sister-in-law's name, and started sending the threatening text messages to her regular cell phone."
  
  The phone records would have indicated that the phone was the sister-in-law's.
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Red Monkey (profile), 12 Jul 2010 @ 2:52pm

self service investigation
So the police are now outsourcing detective work to crime victims? What do the police get paid to do? Good thing the police let them out of jail to investigate the crime. I wonder if they had to supply their own badges.
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- Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2010 @ 3:12pm
  
  Re: self service investigation
  The department of homeland security outsources terrorist suppression to airplane passengers and considers that a systematic success.
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Pixelation, 12 Jul 2010 @ 3:57pm

This brilliant woman will now get to spend time with the "chili finger" lady.

Dumb criminals are dumb.
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abc gum, 12 Jul 2010 @ 4:59pm

The real evil of the pre-paid phone is that a person can get the benefits of a mobile phone without paying exorbitant monthly fees. Certainly, only a terrorist would attempt to do this.
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Loke, 13 Jul 2010 @ 3:13am

Amateur.

She should have used an anonymous telephone. Then stalked the victim and sent herself text messages from locations where the victims where known to have been. The police connects the dots and there you are. Oh and dispose of the phone permanently afterwards. And never have it on between texts.
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- Niall (profile), 15 Jul 2010 @ 2:25pm
  
  Re:
  Except she'd have to leave 'her' phone somewhere else or it would show as in the same area.
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