Jessica Burgess: Facebook under fire after reportedly giving cops mom's chats with teen daughter about abortion
NORFOLK, NEBRASKA: A Norfolk woman is facing criminal charges after helping her six months pregnant daughter abort, burn and bury her fetus earlier this year, as per the search warrant affidavit. The 17-year-old daughter is also facing felony charges. Documents dated April 22 reveal that she gave birth to a stillborn somewhere after midnight but her due date had previously been July 3. A man was also accused of helping the mother-daughter duo. The case was further solidified when Meta was served with a warrant, handing over text messages between the mother and daughter where they can be seen planning the abortion, and burning the evidence thereafter.
Jessica Burgess, 41, is facing five criminal charges, including three felonies, for allegedly helping her 17-year-old daughter Celeste Burgess with her abortion and getting rid of the fetus. Documents obtained by KMTV revealed that Celeste went to her mother when this incident happened. The investigation commenced on a tip that the teenager had buried a fetus with the help of her mother. Jessica then took the lifeless fetus, put it in a bag, and then in the back of a cargo van. While the affidavit does not mention the exact time of when Jessica and Celeste buried the fetus, it does mention that they drove the fetus to a property up in north Norfolk and got rid of it. The man who became an accessory to this crime is the 22-year-old Tanner Barnhill, whose parents owned the property in Madison County. While this could be a case of simple miscarriage, it was not. The chat messages handed in by Facebook revealed that it was indeed abortion.
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Who is Jessica Burgess?
The 41-year-old mother from Norfolk helped her 17-year-old daughter with her abortion. The documents helped the police learn that Jessica bought medication which would cause a miscarriage from an online site, and Celeste, her daughter, said that her mother was the one to give her the medication. Jessica Burgess is charged with three felonies and two misdemeanor in total, and Celeste Burgess with a felony and two misdemeanors in relation to performing an abortion, concealing a body, and providing false information. Both the mother and daughter have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial at Madison County District Court.
The Norfolk Daily News first reported the case. Jessica was held on a $10,000 bond and came out of prison on June 27. The teenager has also pleaded not guilty. She will appear in court at the end of August, and a jury trial date has been scheduled for November. Celeste was held on a $20,000 bond and was released from jail on July 21 as per NTV.
Facebook turns over chats between Jessica and Celeste Burgess
Detective Ben McBride of the Norfolk Police Investigations Unit started the investigation after receiving the tip. His investigation stated that while the Roe v Wade decision by Supreme Court came into effect way after this incident, it is the Nebraska state law that bars a woman from aborting 20 weeks after the egg is fertilized. McBride stated that Celeste was closing in at 23 weeks. This investigation was further facilitated by Facebook as they turned over chats between Jessica and Celeste upon receiving a warrant, as per the court documents. McBride wrote in his investigation report, "C. Burgess talks about how she can’t wait to get the ‘thing’ out of her body and reaffirms with J. Burgess that they will burn the evidence afterward." In one of the messages, Celeste wrote, "Are we starting it today," to which Jessica replied, "We can if u want the one will stop the hormones."
The Facebook messages that were discovered two days before the stillbirth occurred showed Celeste and Jessica discussing how to use the abortion pills. She wrote stuff like she couldn't wait to get this "thing" out of her body. Jessica and Celeste, both are facing charges of concealing the death of another person, false information, and a felony charge for human skeletal remains. The text messages shown in court documents and seen by NBC News, show Jessica telling a user Celeste "What i ordered last month" and instructing her to take two pills 24 hours apart. As of now, Facebook, now called Meta, is known for complying with law enforcement requests. Moreover, they store most of their user information in plaintext on its servers, which makes it easily applicable.
The Supreme Court overruled the Roe v Wade ruling, putting an end to the constitutional right to abortion for women. However, this decision did affect Nebraska's state law in no sense whatsoever. The SCOTUS ruling came in June, and this incident took place in April. Moreover A state policy analyst, Elizabeth Nash, at the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit that advocates for reproductive rights policy explained that the state has not changed its law since the beginning. As covered by CNBC, she said, "The police could have decided not to charge them, but it looks like the police are throwing the book at the mother and daughter, charging them with everything from criminal abortion to false reporting. This is the kind of response we are expecting to the Dobbs decision and states banning abortion.”