JCOM 2300 Thoughts...Facebook Kid

I love social media. From keeping in contact and reuniting with friends to being updated on recent news, the benefits of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets are unlimited. What if, however, social media could keep you from being accused of a crime you did not commit?

Rodney Bradford of Harlem, New York was committed of gunpoint robbery on the morning of Oct. 17, 11:49 a.m. to be exact. When the 19-year old Bradford was arrested next day, Facebook became his best friend and alibi.

Arrested for the gun point mugging of Jeremy Dunklebarger and Rolando Perez-Lorenzo, between Bridge and Prospect streets at 11:50 a.m., Bradford argued he was visiting his father at that time, and ironically updating his Facebook status. When Bradford’s defense lawyer, Robert Reuland, told a Brooklyn assistant district attorney, Lindsay Gerdes, about the Facebook entry, the page was reopened to verify the update had been typed from a computer located at 71 West 118th Street in Harlem. When that was confirmed, the charges were dropped.

John Browning, a lawyer and member of the Dallas Bar Association who studies social networking and the law said, “This is the first case that I’m aware of in which a Facebook update has been used as alibi evidence.” Browning is currently writing a book about lawyers and social networking.

Many other cases have been solved or proved evident through Facebook and MySpace accounts including divorce situations and burglary cases. One employee who said he was too sick to work at his desk was found to have been well enough to add numerous blog posts nearly every day. Postings by a sheriff’s deputy on his MySpace page led to his firing for “conduct unbecoming an officer.” Social networking has become a powerful tool for almost any situation involving a crime, questionable event or act.

Bradford’s friends have nicknamed him the Facebook kid and Bradford is now able to continue to attend school instead of prison all because of a status update. Hopefully, none of us will ever have to use our Facebook postings to our advantage in this way.