Felicia Garcia, the Totenville High teen who threw herself in front of a Staten Island train last week, was allegedly bullied after having sex with multiple members of her school's football team, and now the NYPD's Special Victims Unit has begun investigating her suicide.
The 15-year-old had an alleged consensual encounter with the football players at a post-game party last weekend, and that a sex tape may have been shown at school the following week. Though the four football players reportedly involved in the group sex are all under 18 and have maintained that the sex was consensual, if the sex tape was distributed without Garcia's consent, they may be charged with felony crimes like unlawful surveillance in the second degree—or, if the tape was posted on the Internet, dissemination of an unlawful surveillance image. "If [the actions] set forth a chain of events that led a young person to kill themselves it would be viewed quite seriously," Fordham University Law School professor James Cohen told SIlive.com.
Garcia's peers say the teen was bullied mercilessly online: "She became self-conscious from all of the teasing," Mariah Alimossy, one of Garcia's friends, told the Post. "She was asking if she looked fat or ugly."
The SVU has been using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to find evidence of web-based bullying; meanwhile, threats against the varsity football team prompted the NYPD to send extra cops to campus for protection. "It's obviously a very disturbing…event," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday. Yesterday's Tottenville High football game has been postponed until tomorrow, and no fans will be permitted to attend.
