PA Cheer Mom Sent Illicit ‘Deepfake’ Videos Of Daughter’s Rivals To Coaches Urged Girls To ‘Commit Suicide’

BUCKS COUNTY, PA. (THECOUNT) — Raffaela Marie Spone, of Chalfont, Pennsylvania, has been named as the suspect charged with cyber harassment of a child after allegedly making illicit deepfake videos of her daughter’s cheerleading rivals and sending them to their Bucks County coaches.

Spone, 50, who resided in Tucson, Arizona in 2016, is facing criminal charges after sending deepfake videos to the coaches of her daughter’s cheerleading rivals in a bid to get the girls kicked off the Doylestown team.

The fake images, which showed the kids drinking, smoking and in the nude, were also sent to at least three girls on the Victory Vipers cheerleading team, with messages urging the youngsters to commit suicide.

Spone is charged with cyber harassment of a child.

There was no indication her teenage daughter knew what her mother was doing, according to court documents.

DEVELOPING::

Geo quick facts: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is north of Philadelphia and bounded by the Delaware River to the southeast. Washington Crossing Historic Park marks the point where George Washington’s army crossed the river to engage in a pivotal attack during the Revolutionary War. Pennsbury Manor, colonist William Penn’s estate, is downriver. In Doylestown, the county seat, the Mercer Museum exhibits 18th- and 19th-century tools – wikipedia.