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A teenage cheerleader from Pennsylvania who became the target of “fake videos” and images last summer by a rival’s mother who wanted her out of the squad, said Monday she believed no one would believe her if she spoke.
Madi Hime was 16 when her coach from the Victory Vipers cheer team approached her and two other teammates in July about pictures and videos that appeared to show them. naked or in a bikini, drinking alcohol and smoking vape pens, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, citing an affidavit filed by the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.
“I got in the car and started crying, and I was like, ‘That’s not me in the video,'” Hime, now 17, told “Good Morning America.” Monday. “I thought if I said that nobody would believe me because obviously there is evidence, there is a video – but obviously this video has been manipulated.”
Hime told the outlet that someone posing as a worried relative messaged him. When she responded, she received an automated response regarding changing a phone number.
Hime said she spoke to her mother, Jennifer Hime, who then contacted Hilltown Police. Investigators determined that the photos and videos were “deep fakes” created by using photos from the girls’ social media profiles and overlaying them with different images to make them look authentic. Police tracked down the phone numbers on a website that specializes in selling phone numbers to telemarketers.
Investigators assigned information to the IP address, allowing them to follow the threatening messages to the home of Raffaela Marine Spone. Police said investigators found evidence on Spone’s cell phone linking her to the numbers used to harass the girls.
Raffaela Marine Spone faces between six months and a year in prison if found guilty.
(Hilltown Township Police Department)
Spone, 50, of Chalfont, was arrested on March 5 and charged with three counts of cyber-harassing a child and three counts of stalking, according to online records from the Hilltown Police Department.
TOM DEEP CRUISE ON TIKTOK POINT TO BIGGER PROBLEMS WITH REALISTIC PHONE VIDEOS
Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub told the Washington Post that Spone had not been charged with a more serious crime because the doctored photos included skin tone bars to create a “Barbie doll effect” to make the naked girls, but “without obvious genitals.”
Weintraub said Spone faces between six months and a year in prison if convicted.
His attorney, Robert Birch, told Philadelphia’s WPVI-TV on Monday that he could not comment on his case because Weintraub apparently provided no evidence.
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“She absolutely denied what they are accusing her of and because it hit the press she received death threats. She had to surrender to the police herself, they have a report. Her life has changed … upside down, “Birch said.
Danielle Wallace of Fox News contributed to this report.
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