Madi Hime is taking a deep drag on a blue vape in the video, her eyes shut, her face flushed with pleasure. The 16-year-old exhales with her head thrown back, collapsing into laughter that causes smoke to billow out of her mouth. The clip is grainy and shaky – as if shot in low light by someone who had zoomed in on Madi’s face – but it was damning. Madi was a cheerleader with the Victory Vipers, a highly competitive “all-star” squad based in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The Vipers had a strict code of conduct; being caught partying and vaping could have got her thrown out of the team. And in July 2020, an anonymous person sent the incriminating video directly to Madi’s coaches.
Eight months later, that footage was the subject of a police news conference. “The police reviewed the video and other photographic images and found them to be what we now know to be called deepfakes,” district attorney Matt Weintraub told the assembled journalists at the Bucks County courthouse on 15 March 2021. Someone was deploying cutting-edge technology to tarnish a teenage cheerleader’s reputation.
But a little over a year later, when Spone finally appeared in court to face the charges against her, she was told the cyberharassment element of the case had been dropped. The police were no longer alleging that she had digitally manipulated anything. Someone had been crying deepfake. A story that generated thousands of headlines around the world was based on teenage lies, after all. When the truth finally came out, it was barely reported – but the videos and images were real.
I already read that one, where do you think I got the quote I provided you? Did you read it?
Anyway. I went ahead and read two more to try and get a more concise explanation of what was proven in court here are some notes:
We know this was not fake but it was sent to the coaches, not the parents. Doesn’t seem like someone who is concerned about the girl in the video. Seems like someone who wants to fuck up their cheerleading career.
So we’ve confirmed she had images with cruel captions on her phone. That IS harassment and again, not the behavior of a concerned parent.
She fucked around and ended up having her name drug through the mud. Same as she was trying to do to the girls. I have no sympathy. Is the deepfake thing stupid? Yes, but that’s on the cops for not investigating properly before making statements. As usual.
You stopped before the good part…
The information you’re presenting is presented as having come from Weintraub over the course of the investigation into Spone. What do we learn later about Weintraub?
“Matt Weintraub became a judge in January; his office said that, given his new position, “the ethical rules require him to decline” my interview offer – but he has been declining to comment on the case since May 2021.”
Moderately suspicious until you weigh in this. That investigation that crucified Spone, the one you’re so dead set on being fact? Well, it didn’t result in much did it?
“But a little over a year later, when Spone finally appeared in court to face the charges against her, she was told the cyberharassment element of the case had been dropped. The police were no longer alleging that she had digitally manipulated anything…
Someone had been crying deepfake. A story that generated thousands of headlines around the world was based on teenage lies, after all. When the truth finally came out, it was barely reported – but the videos and images were real.”
Now the article goes on to talk about the other families involved. If they were on the righteous side of all this, certainly they’d share a thought?
“I have tried to contact Madi and Jennifer Hime for two years, over email and social media, and also Kayla Ratel and her parents, Sherri and George; none of them have responded. Of the three families, only the Neros have got back to me, to politely decline my request. Those who made the loudest noise when the cheerleader deepfake story broke have now gone quiet.”
The reporter then goes onto to acknowledge that the only perspective that can be shared on the WHY any of this happened, is that of Spone.
However the reporter goes on to tell us,
“The way Spone describes it, there was no rivalry between the Vipers. But it’s clear that in 2020 she had been checking the social media feeds of her daughter’s cheerleading friends and had become concerned by what she saw. What happened next caused things in that cheerleading family unit to break down, irretrievably. “They were my friends. They were people I cared about,” Spone says, quietly. “It broke every part of me.””
So… maybe Spone did send the videos to the coaches… another X for her… but, here’s a reminder that you’ve pulled that information from police investigation headed up by a would be pedophile, who claimed to be able to visually decode deepfakes, using “metadata”.
An investigation done for Weintraub, who’s still a starry eyed DA with an election to win at this point. An investigation that would be drummed up nationally, getting as many eyes on “Karen the Pedo Mom” as possible…
Only to drop the charges, slap Spone on the wrist, & the STFU his way to a judgeship.
Spone saw her kid doing dumb kid shit, alongside other dumb kids doing more dumb kid shit on Social Media… that’s where she got those images you want to crucify her for.
She didn’t make them. The kids did. She raised the flag internally, trying to KEEP KIDS from getting in worse trouble.
Again, I’ll grant that maybe Spone contacted the coach. But do you when that happened?
Did it possibly happen after the other girls started lying about deep fakes?
Cause if Spone already knew those girls were lying, then she’s got nothing to lose by going to the coach. That is a mother protecting her daughter.
From who?
From a bunch of dumb fuckin kids who are just dumb enough to put their dumb fuckin kid shit on social media, just dumb enough to get caught, & just fuckin dumb enough to lie this charade onto a national platform.
Like I said, read the whole fuckin article.