Man Accused of Trying To Sell Kids On Craigslist

crimeandpunishment writes "You can get a lot of good deals on Craigslist, apparently including children. A New York State man has been arrested for allegedly trying to sell his children on the online marketplace. From the article: 'State Police Investigator Bryan Blum said Joshua A. Stagnitto, 24, was charged with one count of third-degree falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor, after a report was made to Monroe County Child Protective Services advising them of the posting on the online marketplace. The posting indicated a person was selling their children. Police said an investigation revealed Stagnitto was the source of the posting.'"

Comments

I think the reporter is confused (as is /. poster)

[Hubec]

It's really hard to tell exactly what's going on here based on this messed up article, but I think I've figured it out: Santiago makes a hoax posting on craigslist hoping for a media firestorm. Nobody notices. Santiago reports the posting to Child Protective Services intending to stoke the fire. Police figure out he's the guy that made the original posting which is obviously a joke and charge him with making a false report for wasting their time.

Am I close?

Re:Falsely reporting an incident?

[BattleApple]

I think it falls under this:

A person is guilty of falsely reporting an incident in the third degree when, knowing the information reported, conveyed or circulated to be false or baseless, he: 1. Initiates or circulates a false report or warning of an alleged occurrence or impending occurrence of a crime, catastrophe or emergency under circumstances in which it is not unlikely that public alarm or inconvenience will result

http://law.onecle.com/new-york/penal/PEN0240.50_240.50.html

Re:Good Job Samzenpus!

[clone53421]

And here’s a quote to back up my claim:

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/brockport_man_posted_children.html

Stagnitto was charged with third-degree falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor, because he allegedly creating public alarm by posted false information [SIC], that he wanted to sell his children, Blum said.

The false report was that he wanted to sell the kids. It was false, it caused public alarm, and they’re charging him with falsely reporting an incident.

And yes, “he allegedly creating public alarm by posted” is word-for-word what they reported. WTF, OMG, etc.