Utah man created fake Facebook account to threaten himself and police, charges say

For illustrative purposes only | Royalty-free, iStock / Getty Images Plus, St. George News

ST GEORGE — A southern Utah man is facing criminal charges after police say he got into an online argument with another person on an NBA Facebook forum, then created a fake Facebook profile of that other person and used it to threaten the St. George Police Department.

The unusual case involving a 30-year-old man from Ivins, Washington County, began in June when the man got into an argument with another man on an NBA Facebook forum.

Ethan Lee Freier then started “harassing” the other man through private messages “and even started a fake Facebook profile that had (the victim’s) ex-wife as the profile picture,” according to a police booking affidavit. The fake account used a name similar to the victim’s.

Using the newly created fake Facebook account, Freier — while posing as the victim — sent a message to the St. George Police Department claiming that he was being harassed by a man in Ivins and that was at his “breaking point” and was going to kill the Ivins man and “bomb” the police department, the affidavit states.

Read the full story here: KSL News.

Written by PAT REAVY, KSL.com.

Copyright KSL.com.

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