The charges have been dropped against two girls who were accused of bullying a 12-year-old Florida girl to death. Rebecca Ann Sedwick committed suicide when she jumped from the ledge of a concrete factory this past September. The girl had been bullied at school and over Facebook. At least 15 girls had sent Sedwick messages telling her to kill herself. The ringleader of the pack of teens that were verbally attacking Sedwick, 14-year-old Guadalupe Shaw started the bullying after she began dating Sedwick's ex-boyfriend.
Another girl, a 13-year-old identified only as Sedwick's former best friend was also arrested. Shaw was apparently able to get Sedwick's friend to turn on the girl. When the investigation into Rebecca Sedwick's suicide first began the lead sheriff on the case vowed to bring as many charges against those who were accused of bullying the girl as he could. The officer, Grady Judd also said he was looking to bring charges against the girls' parents if at all possible. Shaw and her accomplice were charged with aggravated stalking.
Judd told reporters at a press conference that he felt no guilt about charging, then revealing the identity of the two girls to the media. Judd was looking to make an example of the two teens so it may deter others who were looking to bully classmates. "Our goal was to create an intervention. Our goal was to bring this conflict to the proper authorities to make sure it was dealt with. And it was dealt with," Judd said. Sedwick had attempted to take her own life in the past and was hospitalized last December when she cut her wrists.
Sedwick left the school she attended with Shaw and was said to be enjoying her new classmates. Despite her new surroundings Sedwick was still harassed online. Sedwick's mother Tricia Newman spoke with her local newspaper saying her daughter hid her distress well. "She put on a perfect happy face. She never told me. I never had a clue. I mean she told me last year when she was being bullied, but not this year, and I have no idea why."
Before taking her life Sedwick sent a message to an online friend from South Carolina. The troubled teen told the 12-year-old boy, "I'm jumping. I can't take it anymore." After the charges against Shaw and the younger accused girl were dropped the younger girl's lawyer, Jose Baez, famous for his representation of Casey Anthony, accused the police of bullying his client. "She is not what her mug shot or what the headlines are portraying her to be," Baez told reporters. "She is a child, and I'm not going to allow her to be bullied and I'm not going to allow the system to bully her."
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