Another first for the Facebook social network: A Facebook status update posted on a person’s profile has been used as an alibi to effectively clear a teen of a crime.<\/p>\n
Facebook status updated have broken up marriages, gotten employees fired, caused people to be arrested and convicted of crimes and now a man has had criminal charges against him dropped do to the date\/time and location of a status update he posted to Facebook.<\/p>\n
Rodney Bradford\u2019s status update at 11:49 a.m. on October 17th on the social network was accepted by police and prosecutor as a legitimate alibi after he was arrested in connection with a mugging in NYC.<\/p>\n
The district attorney subpoenaed Facebook to verify that the profile update was posted from a computer at the address of Bradford\u2019s father in Harlem, where Bradford told police he was at the time of the crime.<\/p>\n
However, criminal justice professionals warn that Facebook and other social network status updates should not be used for clearing people of alleged crimes, since anyone with a person’s username and password can access and update an online profile for someone.<\/p>\n