A man charged with pushing a woman into prostitution, as well as attacking her, was found "not guilty" on most charges after the jury learned his accuser described herself on Facebook as a "self-employed head pimptress in charge."
The San Francisco Public Defenders office reports:
Jurors deliberated just over two days before finding 23-year-old Anthony Dorton of San Mateo not guilty Wednesday of assault likely to cause great bodily injury, criminal threats and dissuading a witness, said Dorton’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Qiana Washington. Jury members hung on pimping and pandering charges.
The case of "Who's prostituting who?" may never be resolved, in this series of convoluted circumstances that reveal how your Facebook profile can be used against you in the court of law, even if you’re not the one on trial -- at least if lawyers can show your behavior offline is sketchy, too.
According to the accuser, whose Facebook profile also boasted a graduate degree in the double majors of "Advanced Pimpin" and "keepin hoes in LINE!!!" Dorton "pulled her out of his car by her hair, grabbed her cell phone, threw her to the ground and punched her in the head following an argument."
Dorton and his girlfriend met the woman 11 days before the attack, when they invited her to live at their house when she told them she was a homeless prostitute who had escaped her abusive pimp. Soon after, the woman told police, Dorton forced her back into selling her body on the street.
As well as describing herself as an agent of prostitutes and multiple Facebook comments about punishing the women she exploited, the woman’ character was further called into question with more online evidence.
Dorton’s attorney, Qiana Washington, "presented several ads on prostitution websites showing the woman’s images and listing her cell phone number," the public defender’s office reports. "One posting, advertising the services of a 17-year-old prostitute, lists the older woman’s number. On the stand, the woman admitted to taking explicit pictures of the teenager and fielding her calls, but denied she was her pimp."
Indeed. Dorton’s lawyer also rolled out some video of an Occupy San Francisco news report, in which the woman claimed to be "retired nurse on unemployment."
Mulling the accusers denials of pimping, claims to the medical profession and over-the-top Facebook activity, the jury spent two days deliberating before they gave their verdict. "The complaining witness was caught in lie after lie," Dorton’s lawyer, Washington said in a statement. "This was a case that depended on her word, and she demonstrated it could not be trusted." Neither on Facebook, or in real life.
Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet privacy. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.
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