N.Y. woman faces jail for calling former in-law 'stupid' in Facebook post

A US woman is facing a one-year prison sentence
for violating a protection order by tagging victims
in a Facebook post and making derogatory
comments about them.
Despite being divorced from her ex-husband
Rafael Calderon and issued with a protection
order preventing her from contacting her ex-
husband or his family, Maria Gonzalez of New
York decided to tag her former sister-in-law
Maribel Calderon in a Facebook post and call her
'stupid', according to the New York Law Journal.
Gonzalez also tagged Calderon in another post
saying: "You and your family are sad ... You guys
have to come stronger than that!! I'm way over
you guys but I guess not in ya agenda."
Protection orders, also known as restraining
orders, are court-issued orders that require one
person (the one being restrained) to stay away
from the person requiring protection, and this
means specifically that the restrained person is
not to hurt, threaten or communicate with the
protected person at all.
You might think it should be obvious that "no
communication" would include SMS text
messages, phone calls, emails, IM chat messages
and any form of contact through social media
networks, but
Gonzalez argued in court that the protection order
"did not specifically prohibit [her] from Facebook
communication" with her ex-husband's family.
Unfortunately for Gonzalez, who was charged
with second-degree criminal contempt, Acting
Westchester County Supreme Court Justice Susan
Capeci disagreed.
"The allegations that she contacted the
victim by tagging her in a Facebook posting
which the victim was notified of is thus
sufficient for pleading purposes to establish
a violation of the order of protection,"
Capeci wrote in the decision The People v.
Gonzalez, 15-6081M, upholding the
charges.
Capeci stated in her ruling that Facebook is
considered to be a viable form of communication,
citing a 2014 decision made by the New York
Court of Appeals in the case of People v Horton.
In that case, the judge presiding ruled that
Facebook messages are equivalent to emails,
after a defendant was found guilty of witness
tampering by trying to "out" a confidential
informant on Facebook and then sending her
Facebook messages with threats intended to
induce her not to testify against the defendant.
Gonzalez' court-appointed lawyer Kim Frohlinger
told the New York Post that she would not be
appealing the ruling.
Although such a case hasn't surfaced in the UK
yet, it would be advisable for everyone to note
that any form of digital messaging or
communication over social media does in fact
count as a form of communication, regardless of
whether the message is sent privately or publicly