IN- 15 Finds Out: Internet stalking

See earlier report.

8-20-2008 Indiana:

WABASH, Ind. (WANE) - A Wabash man accused of stalking and harassing women has had two felony charges against him dropped.

Ryan Brown, 23, will be sentenced in September on two misdemeanor charges of harassment. He had also been facing two felony charges of stalking. But at a hearing on Wednesday, the two felony charges were dropped as part of what's called a "charge bargain".

Prosecutors said Brown created profiles on the social networking site, Facebook. According to court documents, he posed as two Wabash women and engaged in online sexual activity with men.

Back in March, Emily Jones, 28, was alerted by her church pastor about a profile built under her name. Soon after, Emily discovered her 16 year old sister, Haley, was also a victim.

"I was completely sick. My stomach got tight, I had trouble breathing," Jones said about seeing the site for the first time.

According to the family, the online identity theft went overlooked for 2 years.

The family told NewsChannel 15, Brown was a worker at their church.

"He got pictures of me from our school roster, my cheerleading picture. He got pictures from the church directory," said Haley.

Brown was charged with two counts of harassment and stalking. The victims said that's not enough. They are working with local and state officials to update current laws involving Internet activity. State Representative Bill Ruppel is one lawmaker working on this problem.

"Our laws were written before the Internet was in and even the laws we made during the 90's and early 2000's have not kept up with what's happening in the electronic world," said Ruppel. "Stalking, harassment, ID theft, child and sexual predator laws all need to be changed to adopt this," he continued.

Emily and Haley told NewsChannel 15, they are working to help prevent other people from going through the pain they've experienced.

"It's just humiliating beyond words, you just feel helpless and completely humiliated," said Jones.

"I just feel very violated. Every time I go somewhere, I wonder, ‘what has he read about me on the Internet? What has he seen? Why is he looking at me like that?'," added Haley. ..News Source.. by WANE.com