A 25-year-old woman from Las Vegas has been sentenced to a year in prison after she impersonated her ex-boyfriend on Facebook, nearly ruining his life in the process. Stephani Lawson pretended to be her ex on the social media site for several months in 2015, posting messages that got her former boyfriend falsely arrested four times, according to the Washington Post.
Lawson created fictional posts that made it appear as though her ex, Tyler Parkervest, had violated a restraining order. The Orange County Register reported in late November that Lawson used the phony Facebook account to send herself a series of threatening emails, which ultimately lead to her ex's arrests, though he hadn't actually violated the restraining order. In the fake messages, Lawson made threats that she would be stalked or killed, according to the Orange County Register.
Parkervest was arrested a total of four times between September and December of last year for crimes he never committed. In December 2015, Parkervest's bail was raised to $200,000, a sum his grandparents had to use their home as collateral to post.
Lawson initially plead not guilty in November to the multiple criminal charges filed against her, but later pleaded guilty to felony false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud, or deceit, and felony perjury, according to the Washington Post. The perjury charge arose because Lawson initially testified under oath that her ex-boyfriend had contacted her over Facebook.
The Washington Post reports that Parkervest has been cleared of all the charges against him and moved to Texas to live with his grandfather who had put up his house for collateral. Parkervest's grandmother died before he was cleared.
