Philadelphia Teen Pleads Guilty To Witness Intimidation Via Social Media
By John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A 17-year-old Philadelphia boy charged with witness intimidation and making terrorist threats by way of Twitter pleaded guilty Wednesday in family court.
Nasheen Anderson, of East Germantown, admitted to posting pictures of victims of a 2012 Southwest Philadelphia shooting on Twitter as well as secret Grand Jury evidence. "Expose All Rats" appeared on at least one.
Judge Kevin Dougherty wanted to know why he did it and where he got the discovery information containing police statements and testimony. Anderson says has thousands of followers and he reposted something already out there.
Anderson is being held until his sentencing on December 16th.
Tim McCullough is the boy's attorney.
"Juveniles are not given minimum and maximum sentences, so most juvenile cases are discharged when a child reaches the age of 18. But in some instances, a case can maintain jurisdiction over a case until the child is 21," McCullough explains.
Judge Dougherty denied the Commonwealth's request that Anderson be certified as an adult, and he decided that the jurisdiction will remain in juvenile court.
"And I cannot think, in my history of being a prosecutor for 24 years, of a more significant type of intimidation than this one, where you are actually putting the pictures out there, calling [the witnesses] rats and showing people what they said in their statements in order for harm to come to them, so that ultimately, the shooting case can't go forward," says Prosecutor Jan McDermott.
