A 25-year-old Las Vegas woman has been sentenced to one year in jail for creating a fake Facebook account under her ex-boyfriend’s name to send herself threatening messages, resulting in the man being arrested four times.
According to the Orange County District Attorney’s office, prior to September 2015, Stephani Renae Lawson created a fake Facebook account in the name of her ex-boyfriend, Tyler Parkervest. She was living in Lake Forest, Calif., at the time.
Between September and December of 2015, Lawson sent herself several threatening messages through the account and filed multiple police reports with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. She claimed that Parkervest had violated a restraining order, stalked her and threatened her with death, the district attorney’s office said in a statement. Parkervest was arrested four times over those four months and charged with multiple felonies.
According to the Orange County Register, Lawson filed eight police reports alleging her ex-boyfriend would drive by her home when she was outside, stalked her and threatened to kill her and her daughter.
According to the newspaper, Parkervest was also charged with trying to get Lawson not to testify against him in court. Parkervest’s bail was also increased last December to $200,000, money the man didn’t have.
Parkervest’s grandparents offered their Texas home as collateral so their grandson could make bail, the newspaper reported.
Lawson used the fake Facebook account in May to send more threatening messages just days before she had to testify at her ex’s preliminary hearing, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
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That’s when her gig was up.
According to Orange County Register, Lawson perjured herself during the hearing, claiming the messages were sent via Facebook just before the hearing.
“The Facebook messages threatened Lawson from testifying in court and one message stated a friend had fun raping Lawson’s daughter,” the newspaper quoted Orange County District Attorney investigator Loren Dawson as saying.
Turns out investigators obtained search warrants for Facebook and mobile phone records during the trial which led to the discovery of her creating the fake social media profile.
“The T-Mobile records showed that Lawson disguised herself as Parkervest with a similar Facebook account,” Dawson said. “Lawson sent herself numerous criminal threats from the phony ‘Tyler Parker’ Facebook account and reported to law enforcement that Parkervest sent her the messages. Lawson had Parkervest arrested four times for crimes that he did not commit.”
According to the newspaper, senior deputy District Attorney Mark Geller became suspicious of Lawson’s claims during the hearing after she showed prosecutors screenshots of the supposed threats.
“One of my DA colleagues looked at it and said it doesn’t look right and that triggered in our mind maybe we need to look into this further,” the Orange County Register quoted Geller as saying.
Lawson was charged in September and pleaded guilty last week to one felony count of false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud, or deceit, and one felony count of perjury.
Charges against Parkervest were dropped in October.
According to the Orange County Register, Parkervest’s grandparents would attend every court hearing and his grandmother passed away before he was cleared of all charges. Parkervest is now living with his grandfather in the Texas home that was offered up as collateral for Parkervest’s bail.
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