A Pennsylvania "cheer mom," accused of bullying her daughter's rivals in a cheerleading team, has been found guilty of harassment by a jury Friday, March 25.
Raffaela Spone, the 51-year-old "cheer mom" whose case drew national attention in 2021, could be imprisoned for one year for repeatedly sending offensive text messages from a secret number to three of her daughter's team members, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Spone could have been tried for severe cyberbullying charges as she allegedly used deep fake technology to alter some photographs of her targets to send to their parents and the cheerleading team coaches. However, the prosecutors dropped the cyberbullying charges due to unsubstantial evidence.
Despite this, the jury of seven women and five men still believed that Spone's behavior against her daughter's rivals constituted harassment. Pennsylvania officials deliberately withheld the names of the victims and their parents from the press.
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Why "Cheer Mom" Harassed the Girls
Spone's daughter and the three teenage girls were part of Victory Vipers, a cheerleading team. Prosecutors said Spone wanted the girls kicked out of the squad and thought that sending those messages, videos, and images would work.
They alleged that the mother was upset over the messages the girls posted about her daughter on social media. Spone knew the girls and had contacted them before using her own number.
The Hilltown Township Police Department learned of the harassment the first time after one of the teenager's parents reported the cruel and offensive messages from a blocked phone number in July 2020. According to The PhillyVoice, some of the messages included photos of the girls appearing nude in public or under the influence of alcohol or vaping. Other messages also implied that one of the girls suffered depression.
By December 2020, two other parents also went to the police to report the same style of harassment. They insisted that the alleged photos of their daughters never happened.
The prosecutors said that the "cheer mom" used software called Pinger to mask her phone numbers, yet investigators were able to track the disguised numbers to her home's IP address. During the trial, the teenage girls and their parents told the jury that the harassment scared them.
Spone, however, didn't face the jury at the trial. Instead, her lawyer, Robert Birch, argued that the prosecutors could not prove that the messages came from the mom herself as it could have been from another concerned parent.
The prosecutors said that if the parents had been concerned about the girls' alleged behaviors, they could have informed their parents first. However, Spone allegedly sent some disturbing messages to the coaches before she turned to the parents.
"Cheer Mom" Awaiting Sentencing
Meanwhile, Spone is out on bail and awaiting her sentencing. Under the state's law, harassment, including sending offensive messages to a child repeatedly, carries a maximum of one year in prison. Spone was found guilty of three counts of harassment in the third degree, per NBC News.
Spone's case is the subject of a new TV series, "Deadly Cheer Mom," which has debuted on Tubi the same day as her conviction.
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