Impersonation could be crime

By Martha Stoddard, Omaha World Herald
February 11, 2011

LINCOLN — State Sen. Amanda McGill of Lincoln rarely goes anywhere without her Blackberry, and she’s a regular on Facebook.

As one of the younger Nebraska lawmakers, she’s comfortable with electronic media. But last fall she encountered a darker side of the online world.

A constituent, apparently trying to make a point, created an email account using McGill’s name and started sending messages that appeared to be from her. He or she also set up blog sites using both McGill’s name and the name of Gov. Dave Heineman.

“It was freaky,” McGill said.

But at least it didn’t cause the type of harm that has happened around the country.

In 2006, a Missouri woman impersonating a teenage boy online drove a 13-year-old girl to suicide.

In 2009, a man posing as his ex-girlfriend posted an ad on Craigslist. A man responding to the ad broke into the ex-girlfriend’s home and raped her.

State Sen. Jeremy Nordquist of Omaha told the Judiciary Committee Thursday he wants to prevent such problems in Nebraska with Legislative Bill 552.

The measure would make it a crime to impersonate someone else online with the intent to defraud, terrify, harass, intimidate or threaten others.

Violators could be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Nordquist said California banned such “e-personation” with a law that took effect in January.

Nebraska statutes don’t directly address the problem, said John Freudenberg, head of the criminal division in the Attorney General’s office. Current laws on criminal impersonation and identity theft deal only with impersonating someone for financial gain or loss, he said.

The California law and LB 552, however, deal with cases in which the impersonation is used to bully, harass, cause harm to reputation or endanger people. They both address impersonation committed via e-mail, social networking sites and other electronic means.

Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, pushed for the California law after his brother became the victim of a Facebook impersonation.

Guardino found there were few options to counter the impersonator, who made it appear as if his brother, a teacher, was mocking a disabled student.

“E-personators are just bullies hiding behind technology,” Guardino said.

Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha, a Judiciary Committee member, wondered whether the bill could be used to address impersonation in political campaigns. Without citing examples, Lathrop said he is concerned that the tone of political campaigns could lead to such problems.

Freudenberg said that question would require time to study, because it could involve issues of free speech.