A Note About Accusations That I Have Been Cyberstalking, Bullying, Harassing

Revised December 20, 2011, 9:45 am

A person in Los Angeles is accusing me, by name, of cyberstalking, harassing, and being a cyberbully.  She has spread these accusations by Twitter and by posts at her own blog.  

These accusations are not true.

The person  making the accusations is basing her complaints on my blog post,  Attorney Claims Autism Parents Are Just In It For the SSI Gravytrain, in which  I quoted comments she posted on the LA Times comment site and her Facebook page.  I not only quoted her words, I posted screenshots of her comments from the LA Times and her Facebook account.

She is now claiming that she never posted those comments, and that I somehow broke into the LA Times commenting platform and posted the comments using her account information and photograph.  She is also claiming that I somehow broke into her Facebook account and posted to her wall, posing as her.  She further claims that I have "pestered" her and her family. 

Her claims and accusations are total fabrications. 

For the record,  I haven't been in Los Angeles in over a year.  I have never telephoned this person, left voice messages for this person, emailed this person, contacted anyone in her office in any way, or had any contact whatsoever with  any family member she may have.  I do not derive any income from this or any other blog. 

The sole extent of my contact with the accuser was:

1. On Monday, December 12, 2011 in the afternoon, I left a comment on  her Facebook page.  You can read the comment  here.  Minutes after I posted the comment, the accuser deleted it, as was her right.
2. On Monday December 12, 2011 and Tuesday, December 13, 2011, I included her twitter handle in the five tweets, shown at the bottom of this post. 

That's it for the direct electronic contact with my accuser.

On Tuesday, December 13, 2011, I posted a link to my post at  The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism Facebook page, at the request of my co-editors.    At the present time, that Facebook post has 53 comments  and has been shared 23 times.  

Several other bloggers followed up with posts of their own.  Those posts were made on the bloggers' own initiatives.  I did not ask any blogger to publish any post at all.  Most I did not know about until after the posts were published. 

Sullivan at the LeftBrain/RightBrain blog is keeping a running list of the blog posts on the SSI/autism issue, and the responses to my accuser: From a Comment at the LA Times  Article to a Tiny Streisand Effect.

 

 

 

Comments

[jillsmo]

Liz, I don't understand. Is she saying that you somehow gained access to her Facebook account and then posed as her by posting that comment on the LA Times website?

[Anarchic_teapot]

I edited this to remove the accuser's name
I would be most intrigued to see what proof she has of any stalking, threats to her family, bullying and harassment, particularly as she spent at least 10 hours on Twitter today in what appears to be an all-out attempt at destroying your reputation and network.

I Storyfied as much as I could of her timeline. I couldn't go back any further in time, so there may well have been more.

"How not to defame someone, a lesson in viciousness by S-- B----" http://sfy.co/Rdw

If she can't prove her claim, and I do not think she can, then she is certainly asking for a libel lawsuit.

Oh, fun fact: even if a tweet has been deleted, if you have the exact time it was posted, you can still find it and publish it. That's how you insert tweets into Wordpress. Hint to anybody with a WP blog and a sudden urge to Streisand ;)

[jillsmo]

OMG. That IS what she's saying. And at least 100 times, too. :(

[Matt Carey]

Given her behavior on twitter, I find it quite easy to believe she wasn't just ignorant when she wrote her LA Times comment.

She's just mean.

Of course that was pretty clear with her comment about expected "scathing replies".

She had a couple of options from the start

a) back up what she said with some facts
b) apologize for making rude statements without facts

She now has a bunch of, well, not truthful statements on her FB page.

URGENT INFORMATION: Dear Friends and Followers, My family and I are being stalked by a direly mentally unstable woman. I have contacted law enforcement authorities. If ANYONE of you is contacted in any way by a strange, hostile person, or has such a person send you messages or posts, PLEASE let me know so I can let police know. This is a VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION and I am sorry to have to let you know this way. This person uses MULTIPLE profiles and names -- some women of different ages, some men and even an "organization" or two. She is DANGEROUS! Any "weird" posts appearing here are from this person. Sorry again, and please be aware of this horrifying situation.

if she truly believes the above, she should seek help. I mean that sincerely. The comment above is not based in reality, or even a good misinterpretation of events.

[jo qatana]

That person is behaving like a classic stalker. I am in the middle of TWO seperate similar situations and when her tweet showed up in my stream last night it was all I could do to keep from publicly jumping down her throat. Which is of course exactly what she wants.

[Matt Carey]

I count over 120 tweets by her, claiming stalking, family harassment (without any evidence), reports to the FBI, etc.

Given her now demonstrated lack of ability to report the truth, I wonder if the phone call with the crying mother she discussed on facebook was a fabrication.

[Anarchic_teapot]

Damn, damn, damn, I've got 'Uprising' stuck in my head again.

Anyway, either paranoia really is in full bloom, or she's a vicious, lying piece of shit trying to cover her back rather than apologise. Of course, the one neither excludes nor excuses the other.

[Anarchic_teapot]

edited to remove the accuser's name
Also on Facebook (on the Law profile, which is incredibly imprudent)

S-- B----, Lawyer for Music and Film
FEAR: For a few days now, I have been stalked and bullied by a crazy. This dangerous person has instilled fear, for sure. This video has helped me during this difficult time. May it bless you, too.

She is SUCH a little tease. When are we going to get some nice juicy details about your dark side, Liz? Dates you were spotted lurking near her home, recorded phone calls... heck, even a quote from your blog, tweets or comments will do.

Hours spent smearing, not a shred of proof is forthcoming. Nor has she answered any direct questions about what occurred.

[My Aspie Life]

Edited to remove identification of the accuser. And I took screenshots of the twitter exchange between MyAspieLife and this woman.
I asked @s--b---- several times today for a simple yes/no answer to my question if she had written the comments that Liz took a screenshot of from the LA Times. Never once did she answer my question. She also asked me to "CHECK THE SOURCES" before I tweeted anything. So I told her, she was the source and I was asking her directly if she had posted the comments. Each reply from her was off topic and as if she couldn't comprehend a simple question. I gave up. I assume she did write the comments because she refused to answer the question. Weirdest thing I've ever encountered. For the record, I DO have a autistic child receiving SSI, and I took offense to her comments.

[autismarmymom]

Is there any chance (just trying to find an explanation because I cannot process how psychotic she seems) that she IS being stalked by someone relative to this whole autistic guy in prison thing, and she's jumping to the conclusion that our reaction to her comments is somehow connected to that? Except that she hasn't really explained why anyone would be out to get her because of that guy's blog. My head hurts.

[Liz Ditz]

Thanks AutismArmyMom. That's one interpretation....but here are some tweets from her to people who follow me:

She has defamed me all over internet, claiming I wrote something she wrote. Deeply evil person. Horrifying time for me.

and

A deeply evil person, who I have no clue even who it is, has defamed me all over internet. Also is stalking my family.

and

She is an imbalanced person stalking me/ posting her own words, saying they are mine. Dangerous nut case.

and

A woman you follow on Twitter is posting words she wrote saying they are mine, stalking, harassing, trying to ruin my reputation.

and

She is insane person posting all over internet stuff She wrote saying I wrote it, w/ links to article she wrote! Idon'tevenknowher!

and

She is stalking my family and harassing them. It is shocking. I have never had ANY interaction with her, never heard of her.

and

Busy reporting the defamation by LIzDitz to Twitter, already did to FBI. Deeply evil. Wrote stuff and said I wrote it.

And the one that was sent to 10s, if not 100s:

I am being stalked/harassed by a nut named @LizDitz who actually wrote the words being tweeted. Have reported to FBI.

So no, I don't think it was related to the guy in prison. I think it was all about me.

[Squillo]

Wait, she's "reported defamation" to the FBI?

Methinks she skipped an important day in law school.

Regarding the complaints about stalking, I hope she familiarized herself with Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 1001 before making the putative report to the FBI.

[Science Mom]

I have no words to describe how I feel right now other than outrage. I'm so sorry Liz that you got in the cross hairs of an unbalanced person like S_B. I can't imagine anyone taking her seriously so I truly hope that nothing comes of this.

[passionlessDrone]

Grumble. . . grumble. . . ##@(^%#!! !@#*#$, stupid, #@(@!*~. Talk about @*@#(@#@@### ignorance.

- pD

[K_Dad]

Lawyer-lady S-B has united the disparate threads of the "autism community" like no one before her! Thank you so much, lawyer-lady S-B!

[Jim W.]

She does seem strangely disconnected from this whole thing. Like not processing things quite right, wildly exaggerating the threats or whatever she felt she received. Going into your followers and tweeting ALL of them. . . or damn near. It's just. . . well, it's weird.

So I engaged her yesterday. It was more or less innocently. I asked her what she was referring to, she said you'd written the words she was being accused of, and I tried to get at "what words". She said something about not ever having been interviewed by you, and I was thinking. . . "does she feel that the blog posting of her cut and pastes was you claiming you interviewed her?" and tried to get to the heart of it.

And ultimately, I didn't get a good feel for whatever the hell it was she was accusing you of, and just said I felt her comments were insensitive and ignorant, insulting to my daughter and to me and that I had very little sympathy for her. But then I just sorta dropped the whole thing.

Her blog posts on "occupypeace" or whatever it is, reference the evils of the FBI, and how the FBI is infiltrating the movement, and to look out for "the man". And yet she's tweeting up and down about contacting them for help.. . I really think her whole internet life at this point is a gigantic cry for help.

And I'm busy helping other people right now.

[Concerned Reader]

As one of the 99% who's marched with Occupy San Jose a few times, I am very embarrassed that this kook associates with us. Honestly, there are lots of people who support Occupy who are not scary, libelous, stalkers and jerks.

[Julia]

I know of 1 [one] person who says he was at an occupy rally a few times but now he is such a fan of conspiracy theories that as soon as someone else came up with a conspiracy theory about how the "occupy" movement was started by the CIA that he now denounces it. Despite his love of conspiracy theories, he is not at all cruel and paranoid like this SB lawyer. So, she is the worst type of conspiracy-theory fan that I have experienced by direct knowledge [semi-direct, Liz has the more direct experience unfortunately, but at least not in person--luckily I am not a believer in "jinx".] I think the stuff she is doing now is all a bluff to scare Liz and her followers; otherwise she is terrible at lawyer knowledge and/or delusional etc IMO.

[Zoey Roberts]

I support you Liz! keep up the great work! :)Happy Holidays!

[McD]

Ironic. Accusing you of psychotic behaviour.

Hopefully she is getting help, preferably from someone with experience with BPD.