Fakebook fury
Crime eyed in impostor site targeting S.I. candidate
A STATEN ISLAND woman who believes a bogus Facebook page helped tank her political career is trying to poke prosecutors into action.
Janine Materna, 34, who ran for the Republican nomination in a state Assembly race in 2016, says a trolling trickster who made a fake Facebook page about her should face charges.
“Facebook failed me. Prosecutors have failed me and something needs to be done. This shouldn’t be happening and I’m very disappointed,” Materna told the Daily News.
She lost her 2016 run for the GOP nod by a 35-percentagepoint margin. Not only did she have an opponent to beat, but she had to fight back against a phony online account set up in her name that sparked threats against her from outraged voters. The fake Facebook said Materna (photo right) supported homeless shelters in the borough and touted her eagerness to “kill the Second Amendment.”
This past August, NY1 reported the page administrator was Staten Island attorney Richard Luthmann (photo left), a lawyer who once proposed dealing with a case through a “trial by combat.”
He was also allegedly behind dubious pages for Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon, City Councilwoman Debi Rose and onetime mayoral candidate Nicole Malliotakis, according to NY1.
Materna’s lawyer, Andrew Stengel, told The News that Luthmann should be charged.
“In a season where we’re all screaming about Russia taking over elections, why isn’t it a big deal here in New York?” he said.
The two-year deadline to file misdemeanor offenses like criminal impersonation and identity theft is about three and a half months away, according to Stengel. The statute of limitations started running in September 2016, when the page was last active.
Luthmann would not comment being the pages’ creator – but Stengel insists Luthmann made “admissions” in one post on his own Facebook account.
Luthmann’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, declined comment on the Facebook matter.
Luthmann is also charged in an unrelated federal case claiming he was part of a kidnapping, fraud and extortion scheme.
The fake page allegations launched a legal odyssey, because McMahon’s office was recused from looking into the shenanigans in August.
A judge tapped Manhattan attorney Thomas Tormey to be a special prosecutor in November, but Tormey took himself off the case. Staten Island attorney Eric Nelson was tapped May 21 to fill in as special prosecutor.
Materna says the clock is running out for a fair resolution. The page “definitely hurt” her bid, she said. “I had no way of combating it.”