(From Espn.com)
Thursday, July 24
Pictures reportedly were of schoolmate, a year younger
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Associated Press
EAGLE, Colo. -- The family of a young woman wrongly identified on the Internet as Kobe Bryant's accuser is demanding that Web site operators remove her photograph.
Beth Matthews, the mother of the wrongly identified woman, said Thursday that her daughter was upset to see two photographs of herself, apparently lifted from a high school Web site, spread to hundreds of sites and viewed by people around the world.
Strangers in Internet chat rooms rate her appearance while others make judgments about her character, sometimes using four-letter words, Matthews said.
"I keep telling her these comments are not about you," Matthews said. "But I don't think the real person should have to go through this either."
Her 18-year-old daughter is a year younger than the woman who accused the Los Angeles Lakers superstar of sexually assaulting her June 30 at an exclusive mountain resort.
Both young women graduated from the same high school and have similar first names and hair color, but they don't bear much resemblance to one another.
Matthews said her daughter, a straight-A student, soccer player and dancer, was working three part-time jobs this summer, saving for her freshman year of college in the fall, when she learned that the photographs were posted on the Internet last week.
Since then, she has come home from work early some days because it has been difficult to escape the talk about the case and the mistaken use of her picture.
Reporters call on her cell phone and show up at her house. Matthews said her daughter hesitates before going out to the supermarket in this town of 3,500.
"She just can't get away from it," she said. "It's just not stopping. There's no relief."
Matthews said her daughter, an acquaintance of the alleged victim, has been obsessively spending hours online each day finding out where the photos have spread and seeing how they have been doctored. One site features her daughter's head imposed on the photograph of a nude woman.
One photograph shows her daughter smiling at the prom. In the other, she is posing at a dance team event, not cheerleading, an activity that the alleged victim was involved in during high school.
Sienna LaRene, a lawyer hired by the family Wednesday, said she has been sending letters warning Web sites to stop using the photographs. No decision has been made about whether the family will file lawsuits.
LaRene said she was still investigating who first posted the photograph, starting a chain reaction of misinformation.
"Every time they push that button, they've taken a smile away from a young girl's face, and heaven help them for that," LaRene said.
Thursday, July 24
Pictures reportedly were of schoolmate, a year younger
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press
EAGLE, Colo. -- The family of a young woman wrongly identified on the Internet as Kobe Bryant's accuser is demanding that Web site operators remove her photograph.
Beth Matthews, the mother of the wrongly identified woman, said Thursday that her daughter was upset to see two photographs of herself, apparently lifted from a high school Web site, spread to hundreds of sites and viewed by people around the world.
Strangers in Internet chat rooms rate her appearance while others make judgments about her character, sometimes using four-letter words, Matthews said.
"I keep telling her these comments are not about you," Matthews said. "But I don't think the real person should have to go through this either."
Her 18-year-old daughter is a year younger than the woman who accused the Los Angeles Lakers superstar of sexually assaulting her June 30 at an exclusive mountain resort.
Both young women graduated from the same high school and have similar first names and hair color, but they don't bear much resemblance to one another.
Matthews said her daughter, a straight-A student, soccer player and dancer, was working three part-time jobs this summer, saving for her freshman year of college in the fall, when she learned that the photographs were posted on the Internet last week.
Since then, she has come home from work early some days because it has been difficult to escape the talk about the case and the mistaken use of her picture.
Reporters call on her cell phone and show up at her house. Matthews said her daughter hesitates before going out to the supermarket in this town of 3,500.
"She just can't get away from it," she said. "It's just not stopping. There's no relief."
Matthews said her daughter, an acquaintance of the alleged victim, has been obsessively spending hours online each day finding out where the photos have spread and seeing how they have been doctored. One site features her daughter's head imposed on the photograph of a nude woman.
One photograph shows her daughter smiling at the prom. In the other, she is posing at a dance team event, not cheerleading, an activity that the alleged victim was involved in during high school.
Sienna LaRene, a lawyer hired by the family Wednesday, said she has been sending letters warning Web sites to stop using the photographs. No decision has been made about whether the family will file lawsuits.
LaRene said she was still investigating who first posted the photograph, starting a chain reaction of misinformation.
"Every time they push that button, they've taken a smile away from a young girl's face, and heaven help them for that," LaRene said.
