The Chalfont ‘Cheer Mom’ who gained international notoriety in March 2021 following allegations that she had sent harassing texts and images to members of her daughter’s cheerleading team has been sentenced to probation.
Court records show that 52-year-old Raffaela Spone was sentenced last week by Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Brian McGuffin to three years’ probation. A jury found Spone guilty of three counts of misdemeanor harassment in March.
As part of the sentence, Spone will have her internet activities monitored, she will have to undergo a curfew, and will have to perform 72 hours of community service. Spone was additionally ordered to pay costs and restitution and is prohibited from having contact with the victims and indirect contact with their families.
Spone must also undergo a mental health evaluation, court records show.
The investigation was first reported by North Penn Now on March 11, 2021, and went on to garner international coverage as regional, national and international news outlets picked up the story.
According to the criminal complaint, Hilltown Township Police were contacted by a resident on July 8, 2020, regarding their juvenile daughter being cyber bullied for approximately one month. The parent of the victim stated their daughter had been receiving both phone calls and text messages from a blocked number telling the victim to kill herself, along with alleged doctored and edited images and videos from the teen’s social media accounts that had been modified to make her appear nude, drinking alcohol and vaping, police said.
Police said the images and videos appeared to be modified akin to “deep fakes,” and all correspondence was sent through free text and call apps that assign random or new phone numbers to the host line, according to the complaint. Investigators were able to secure search warrants for several communication companies, however, and police were eventually able to trace the communications back to a home along the 100 block of Tartan Terrace belonging to then-50-year-old Raffaela Spone, the report states.
On Dec. 18, 2020, investigators retrieved mobile phones, a Facebook Portal, laptops, an Xbox gaming system, a modem, and various other electronic equipment from Spone’s home, according to the complaint. Several days later, two additional parents came forward to report that their juvenile daughters had received similar messages from anonymous numbers, in which images were modified and similar claims were made about drinking, smoking, and vaping, the report states.
Investigators later determined that Spone and the three victims had a shared connection to one another via the cheerleading group, according to the complaint. Additionally, the results of the analysis of Spone’s phones, laptops and equipment allegedly provided digital evidence that Spone was the person responsible for sending the texts and making the calls, police said.
A follow up report by KYW stated that charges filed in connection with the alleged doctored images and videos were later dropped, as prosecutors could not prove the images were faked.
To read more about the trial, click here.
See also:
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