Cyber Stalking: Action News Investigation

Action News Investigator Heather Catallo has a look at what this young woman went through, and how she’s fighting back in the video player on the right. 

Heather: Mai Hlee Xiong says the man who stalked her on-line not only damaged her reputation – he crushed her sense of security.

Mai Hlee Xiong is an experienced beauty pageant winner in the Hmong community here in Michigan.  The Hmong are members of Asian ethnic group, once recruited to fight communism in Laos, and later forced to flee to their homeland.   

The pageants are a major part of the Hmong New Year celebration, and beauty queens like Mai must be above reproach. 

Mai Hlee Xiong/Received Harassing E-mail: "You become this role model."

This accomplished 24-year-old not only publishes a Hmong cultural magazine, Mai is a web designer, and she consulted on the Clint Eastwood movie "Gran Torino." 

So Mai was shocked when she received a devastating e-mail last summer from a man she describes as a cyber stalker. 

Mai Hlee Xiong/Received Harassing E-mail: "I was really hysterical, and I was frightened because I was really hurt." 

Mai says her cyber stalker uploaded a video onto YouTube, which was a montage of family photos from her private MySpace page, edited together with nude images and disparaging text. 

Mai Hlee Xiong/Received Harassing E-mail: "I love my parents so much, to know that you can hurt me, but please don’t just hurt my family." 

The video was titled "The Realest Hlee XXXiong," spelled wrong to imply sex and it called Mai disgusting names.  The alleged cyber stalker sent the e-mail to dozens of people within the Hmong community, and the nasty images went viral on the web, prompting people to contact Mai and harass her.

Mai Hlee Xiong/Received Harassing E-mail: "Emotionally, it was very devastating. I became very paranoid.  I could not work, and even the sound of the email, when you hear that ding coming in, that still gives me chills."

Ed Nahhat/Attorney: "It was clearly a campaign to, really to destroy her reputation."

Ed Nahhat is Mai’s attorney.

Ed Nahhat/Attorney:  "This was a very sophisticated compilation of images that were taken from her personal life. They were all taken out of context, and mashed together with music.  It was very malicious." 

Mai Hlee at her computer: "These are the key words that people are searching."

Determined to bring the cyber stalker to justice tech-savvy Mai set up tracking devices on all of her websites to figure out the sender’s IP address – a unique code attached to the computer where the email originated.  And what she found was shocking. 

Mai Hlee Xiong/Received Harassing E-mail: "That same IP address was coming up so I knew this person was looking for me all over the internet, anywhere he could, all day and all night." 

Mai took her evidence to the Warren Police and they arrested 25 year old Nhia Lee for posting and sending the harassing video.  Mai says she doesn’t know Lee very well., but his sister was one of Mai’s competitors in the Hmong beauty pageants. 

Eric Smith/Macomb Co. Prosecutor: "When your intent is to harass someone, or scare someone, or terrorize someone, in this case, clearly it was, you’re crossing the line.  And that’s when we get involved." 

Nhia Lee’s defense attorney is now trying to argue in court that his client couldn’t have broken the law - because the law is too vague. 

Jeff Cojocar/Nhia Lee’s Attorney: "He’s not a cyber stalker.  He’s upset because he’s being prosecuted for something we don’t believe is constitutional." 

In court records, Lee’s defense attorney claims his client merely forwarded an anonymous e-mail that he received.   

But when the attorney spoke to me the story changed, he said Mr. Lee did post a video on YouTube, but it wasn’t the nasty video. 

Jeff Cojocar/Nhia Lee’s Attorney:  "I don’t know exactly how he compiled it but I believe everything was supposed to be tasteful, and nothing derogatory in any way.  HC: How did he get the pictures of her family?  Of her family? JC: I have no idea." 

But YouTube has informed the Macomb Co Prosecutor that only one video of Mai was posted on YouTube. It was derogatory, it contains family photos, and according to You Tube, it was posted by the IP address or the house where Nhia Lee was living. 

Mai Hlee Xiong/Received Harassing E-mail: "He hurt my family, and my friends, and the community." 

Now Mai says you don’t have to be a cyber sleuth to fight back. 

Mai Hlee Xiong/Received Harassing E-mail: "They can click on prevent a cyberstalker." 

She created a new website, quitstalkingme.com, to help everyone watch their backs on-line. 

Mai Hlee Xiong/Received Harassing E-mail: "When we get a friend request how do we know they really want to be our friend?  Maybe they just want to stalk us." 

Heather: Mr. Nhia Lee is charged with unlawfully posting a message, which is a 2 year felony. He is out on bail right now, but he’ll be back in court next month to challenge the law that he’s charged under.

If you’d like more information about cyber stalking, please click here: www.quitstalkingme.com

If you would like more information about Ms. Xiong’s magazine, please go to www.18xeem.com