Man sentenced to 4 years in prison for putting personal information of ex on prostitution website
One man from New York, who confessed that he cyberstalked his ex-girlfriend, posted all of her personal information on a prostitution website and also mailed drugs to her while she was at college so that he could get her arrested, has been sentenced to four years in prison.
The sentencing took place on June 20. According to the Democrat & Chronicle, 23-year-old Thomas Traficante from Seaford was convicted of "cyberstalking and distribution of a controlled substance". The publication reported that US District Judge David Larimer said Traficante's actions toward his ex-girlfriend were "despicable".
Judge Larimer said, "If you had a modicum of intelligence, you should know that what you did, repeatedly, was despicable." Traficante's lawyer, Raymond Perini, then said that his client currently wants to appeal the sentencing. The 23-year-old pleaded guilty to cyberstalking and distribution of a controlled substance in March, the New York Post reported.
Traficante was a student at the St. John's University in Queens. He had met his ex-girlfriend, who is a student at SUNY Geneseo and who wished to remain anonymous, through one online dating website. The couple were together for some time before breaking up on October 26, 2017.
The prosecutors said that the scorned young man started sending his now-ex-girlfriend and all of her sorority sisters very vague messages saying things like "it’s not safe out there tonight" and "there are various people among different orgs who have me. My plan is to hurt them".
It has been reported that at a certain time, Traficante used a device that was able to change his voice, with which he told the ex's roommates, "I'm in the house". The rightfully terrified girl then changed her phone number so that she couldn't be contacted again but the prosecutors confirmed that the obsessed 23-year-old was able to find her new number somehow and started threatening her again.
In November last year, Traficante mailed his ex Class A drugs including cocaine and methamphetamines to her mailbox in college. After making sure the drugs reached her, he contacted the authorities and told them about the shipment in an effort to get her caught by the police.
A report by Newsday said that the ex's room was searched by the police but they could not find anything. The victim then told the authorities that Traficante was "controlling" and she showed them text messages that the obsessed man had sent her where he threatened to give her personal information to a prostitution website if "she did something he strongly disagreed with."
The Democrat & Chronicle reported that the 23-year-old posted the personal information of his ex on Backpage.com and underneath a prostitution category. She said that after her information was posted, she received almost 60 calls from various men asking for sexual favors. The woman also said that Traficante hacked into her Amazon account and then proceeded to send her a book called "I'm Watching You".
He allegedly also hacked into her email account, cell phone, and various social media accounts. The ex-girlfriend claimed that Traficante had gotten control of her school account as well and even took various quizzes under her name in which he failed on purpose.
He has also been accused of shooting the woman's home with a BB gun. When the authorities arrested him at his parent's home in December 2017, it was reported that they recovered a loaded AR-15 rifle, the semi-automatic weapon that has been linked to almost all the mass school shootings in the country. It was not, however, known at the time of he had planned to use the weapon or if he had bought it legally.
Traficante was enrolled in a master's degree program at the university at the time of his arrest. His ex-girlfriend was present in the courtroom on June 20 and Assistant US Attorney Melissa Marangola said that the young woman has been thinking of changing her name so that she doesn't have to go through something like that ever again.
The 23-year-old obsessed man has been accused in the past, as well, of stalking. There was another woman from 2014 to 2015 who also claimed that she was cyberstalked. He was not charged in that case, however.