USA Radical Black

Facebook alibi saves jailed Black teen

By ERIN CALABRESE – New York Post/November 12, 2009

Pass the syrup — this lucky guy is eating breakfast at home instead of on Rikers Island.

A Brooklyn teen’s playful Facebook message to his pregnant girlfriend about pancakes sprung him from jail and helped him avoid years in prison for a holdup he didn’t commit.

Prosecutors dropped a robbery charge against Rodney Bradford, 19, after learning his Facebook account status had been updated with the inside joke “WHERE MY IHOP?” from a computer in his dad’s Harlem apartment one minute before an Oct. 17 stickup of two men in Brooklyn’s Farragut Houses.

“They had me on Rikers Island for 12 days. It was really miserable,” Bradford told The Post last night.
“If it wasn’t for Facebook I’d still be on Rikers Island.”

His joyful stepmom, Ernestine Bradford, agreed, saying. “Facebook saved my son,” she said. “Normally, we yell at our kids, ‘Oh, you’re on the computer!” It’s completely different. If it wasn’t for Facebook, my son wouldn’t be here.”

The electronic fingerprints from Bradford’s Facebook posting backed up multiple witnesses who said he was at his dad’s home that day, and knocked down a victim’s claim that he recognized one of the robbers as Bradford, who lives in Farragut Houses.

“This was just a very strong alibi,” said Bradford’s lawyer, Robert Reuland. “It reflects the pervasiveness that Web sites and social networking has on our lives.”

Additional reporting by Alex Ginsberg

erin.calabrese@nypost.com

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Tags: Facebook, New York Post