Anonymous Hacker Gets Lost At Sea, Rescued, Then Arrested (softpedia.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Martin Gottesfeld, 31, from Somerville, Massachusetts, was arrested by FBI agents after being rescued at sea in the Gulf of Mexico. According to the FBI, Mr. Gottsfeld was under investigation after launching a series of cyber-attacks against Boston Children's Hospital in 2014, as part of the Anonymous hacker collective. Gottesfeld and his wife were found in a sailboat, near the coast of Cuba, with lots of luggage and 3 laptops. A Disney Cruise ship took them to the Bahamas, where FBI agents took him into custody.

Comments

Re:Nice to have a black / white image of a person.

[Rei]

No, they were not "likely in the wrong for what they did". Do you think it's just a coincidence that she was "in desperate need of hospitalization" when they separated her from her parents, then during the time away from them she became healthy enough to be going out and playing, going from interview to interview, going on trips, etc... then a couple months later after living with her parents ended up back in the hospital on an IV drip?

It amazes me how everyone took the parents statements at face value in this case. According to the hospital, they didn't just rush off and try to get her declared a ward of the state - after the parents refused to listen, they tried to convene a meeting with all of her past caretakers, other people who knew her, etc, but the parents derailed their efforts. They basically had no choice but to either let the parents continue to do what they were convinced was medical child abuse, or step in. And the judge didn't just defer to the hospital's diagnosis in his ruling to put her in protective custody, but also blasted the parents for their erratic behavior and for trying to derail all attempts at compromise. There were many proposals laid out that would have left them with custody of her, but "Rather, the parents, either directly or indirectly, continue to engage in very concerning conduct that does not give this court any confidence they will comply with conditions of custody.'

The case was accused of basically being Munchhausen Syndrome by proxy - that is, the caretaker lies to or otherwise misleads the child and doctors about their child's condition, and often seeks treatment that actually cause the child to develop real symptoms which they then play into their dealings with the child and with doctors. They often engage extensively in doctor shopping, staying only with a doctor so long as he agrees to continue doing whatever treatments they feel are necessary for the child. Kids are very suggestible to begin with, even without parents doing that sort of thing. In the case of Justina, when they brought in a psychologist, the psychologist immediately noticed that the severity of Justina's symptoms was highly dependent on whether her mother was around, and the mother was constantly playing up everything.

It's easy to get concerned about the seriousness of taking a child out of their parents' custody - it's a massive blow to both the parents and the child. But let's also not forget the seriousness of what medical child abuse is all about. In the case of Justina, her parents had taken her for all kinds of surgeries and invasive procedures, some risky and experimental, such as installing a flush port to her digestive tract in her abdomen. She was said to have "mito", but her metabolic workup showed perfectly normal results. She had never had a muscle biopsy. While she was at the hospital her parents were trying to have a feeding tube installed. She was taking a wide range of medications, some with harmful side effects. If you were concerned that this was a case of MSP and were looking at what these parents had done and what they were trying to do, wouldn't you be concerned?