SOMERSET, Texas -- A 16-year-old girl accused of making threats against another girl on MySpace will not be charged.
Police previously said the teen would be the first person prosecuted under a new cyber-bullying law.
However, the new law makes it illegal for anyone to impersonate someone else online. The teenager in the Somerset case may have made threats against a classmate, but she never tried to hide her identity.
The Somerset High School student was taken into custody at the school after a parent complained the teen had been threatening her daughter online. But the Bexar County District Attorney's Office told Somerset police it couldn't prosecute the teen under the new law because she hadn't assumed a different identity when making the online threats.
News 4 WOAI asked Somerset's police chief if his investigators realized hiding one's identity was a necessary factor.
"It wasn't completely a misunderstanding," explained Somerset Police Chief Martin Chavez. "It's a new law, and law enforcement in general need to get familiar with it and completely understand it."
The law was written to prevent tragedies like the one in Missouri where a woman pretended to be a teenage boy on MySpace in order to pull a prank on a teenage girl. That girl later committed suicide.
In Somerset, some feel the 16-year-old shouldn't have been arrested in front of her classmates unless police were sure she had broken a law.
When asked if any other charges will be filed against the teen or if the case was closed, Chief Chavez stated, "Pretty much a closed case as far as law enforcement goes."
Somerset Independent School District officials told News 4 WOAI they won't take any action because the incidences happened off campus. However, they said the teen accused of making the threats was taken out of school by her parents earlier this week.
