Some mothers take their children’s budding athletic careers so seriously, they wind up doing something highly illegal.
One Pennsylvania mother allegedly created deepfake photos and videos of her teen daughter’s cheerleading team rivals, depicting them naked, drinking and smoking in hopes of getting them ejected from the team, says the Hilltown Township Police Department.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Raffaela Spone, 50, allegedly sent the manipulated content to at least three of her daughter’s teammates and their coaches of the Chalfont team, the Victory Vipers.
Even worse — Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub saysSpone upped the ante by anonymously sending messages to the victims urging them to kill themselves.
Obviously, the victims’ parents went to the police with one parent admitting they feared their daughter would be kicked off the team because of the doctored images. Priorities.
Police determined the messages were deepfakes — digitally altered images that appear to be authentic. They traced the IP to Spone’s home and searched her smartphone, where they uncovered evidence linking her to the crime.
Hilltown Township police arrested her on March 4 and charged her with three counts of cyber harassment of a child and three counts of harassment.
When her daughter was questioned, investigators say she gave no indication that she knew what her mother was doing. Still, her cheerleading days are over.
“All athletes involved are no longer apart of our program,” Victory Vipers coaches Mark McTague and Kelly Cramer said in a statement — meaning the girl was booted from their program because of their “strict anti-bullying policy.”
So, knowing that cheerleading mom, that is probably a worse punishment than going to jail.