The teens were charged with threatening the other teen through social media.
Credit: Metro File Photo
Seven teens from Grafton were arrested on felony charges of witness intimidation for allegedly threatening a young violent crime victim through social media and other means.
Grafton police on Friday said that they charged the teens, who range in age from 14 to 19, with witness intimidation after an investigation. Some of the teens face additional charges including criminal harassment and threatening to commit a crime.
Earlier this month, officers spoke to the mother of the 15-year-old victim, who had also been the victim of a violent crime. The officers learned that the teen had been subjected to “repeated and ongoing harassment and intimidation, physically and through social media,” by the group, Grafton police said. The alleged harassment took place inside and outside of school, police said.
After an investigation that included witness interviews and a review of social media sites, police charged the teens.
Those charged were: Joseph Todisco, 18,Anthony Masterson, 19, Daniel Guzetti, 19, two 17-year-old juveniles, a 14-year-old juvenile and a 15-year-old juvenile. While most of the teens were arrested at home or will be summonsed to court, one of the 17-year-old juveniles was arrested at Grafton High School.
Police, in their statement, did not say specifically what the 15-year-old had been a victim of, and what social media sites the teens had used to allegedly harass him. According to the Globe, police would only say the teen was victim of a crime that took place last year and that the group used sites like Twitter and Facebook to allegedly intimidate him.
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