I gotta admit my interest in this story went from 100 to zero pretty fast.
Fansided.com has a sneak preview…
And in the interview, which is set to air Thursday, Te’o gives us a little more of the same: he lied about the hoax.
Not in the sense some people were hoping, but in the sense that he was suspicious about the hoax from the start but pretended like he was sleeping in the same bedroom as Lennay Kekua every night. He also tells Couric that when he found out about the hoax, he continued to lie about it because he didn’t know what else to do.
http://fansided.com/2013/01/23/manti-teo-tells-katie-couric-he-lied-about-hoax-again/
The timeline given by abc.com (and I’m sure other sources) answers all of my questions as far as Manti is concerned. The person that should really be interviewed is the hoaxer and possibly the Arizona FB who claims to have legitimately met her.
All I really want to know from Teo is why he committed his love so quickly and without talking to her (seems most of the interaction was via twitter and fb).
Especially since his is only with her in two photos and in one he is sitting on another man’s lap…
He talked to “her” a lot. Don’t forget the phone calls…lots of phone calls. Article: Phone Records Support Manti Claims (bolding mine):
Whoever was behind the hoax must have mental problems to spend that much time on something like this.
1 or 2 calls, could be funny (depending on how it’s done, good natured prank of a friend type of thing)
1,000 calls? wtf?
The amount of effort put forth for, apparently, no material gain is mind boggling.
Over four months, that’s like eight calls a day. 500 hours is like 20% of the total time in 4 months.
I’m not sure that even counts as a hoax anymore.
Nor the stupidity of a man who fell for it, and then lied about it.
Only if you think the only point was to mess with him, and that may have been how it started. I suspect the prankster evolved it into a blackmail scheme, expecting the about-to-be-wealthy Te’o to be willing to pay to avoid embarrassment.
So it’s coming out that Te’o was on the phone with Tuiasosopo all that time. There was no woman. When the volume of phone calls was reported yesterday I was wondering how this worked- if Te’o had been on the phone with an actual woman (like Donna Tei) for hundreds of hours it would have meant she was committing way, way more time to this hoax than Tuiasosopo was. This is simpler I guess.
Doesn’t seem to be any evidence for this. The hoaxer never made any threats and never went after any of his other marks for money. And if he was going to blackmail T’eo, why bother pretending to still be Lennay when he contacted him again.
I think someone was in love. The long calls don’t really make sense as a prank or even a blackmail plot.
(and on preview, Marley’s link seems to support this).
Draft day will be interesting - he’d be the first known gay in the NFL. Which teams would rather pass up the top linebacker in years than deal with that? On top of that, he’s going to have to be the meanest SOB in the league, both on and off the field - the Jackie Robinson approach won’t cut it in the shower room.
Its not obvious that T’eo’s gay (though one suspects the hoaxer is ). The hoaxer’s lawyer says he mimicked a female voice and T’eo bought it. Not really sure how believable that is, but that’s the (current) story.
Whether he’s gay or not, he’s now going to be *thought *to be, which will still bring him just as much shit.
Te’o is not gay. If he were, it would hardly have made sense for Tuiasasopo to send a female picture and identify himself as a woman.
It’s brought up in this article, out today:
What I love best about this story is that there are 3 story highlights (the first of which makes no grammatical sense) accompanying a 193word story. Helpful for the people who clicked the link, but don’t have the one minute it takes to read the main article and needed a Cliff’s Notes version.
God I love USA Today.
Edited to add: in the space of me posting this, someone actually revised the first story highlight. Originally it read “Was alleged scammer in Te’o story pull even another hoax on the Notre Dame linebacker”
I’m sure we’ll eventually hear the “voice” (as it was, not the guy just talking now) and can judge ourselves. It’s different in hindsight, of course, but I’d bet it’s convincing.
Another layer of embarrassment for Te’o. I wonder if this is news to him as well.
Couric’s site had voicemail audio posted earlier but it’s down now. I didn’t hear them, but according to people who did, they sounded very very much like a girl.
Not to make the thread boring, but this is potentially a crime.
California Penal Code 528.5: Credible impersonation of actual person on Internet Web site or other electronic means
Let’s walk thru it.
Knowingly = yes, Hoaxer knew he was tricking Te’o
and
without consent = girl in picture says she had no idea.
credibly impersonates another actual person = “Lennay” was fake, but girl in picture was a real person, not sure how that works. Also, did hoaxer credibly impersonate her. Likely, but I still think a lot of people can’t think how someone would fall for this (ie, not credible).
on a website, ect. = yes
for purpose of
Harming = possible. Not sure what harm means here - mental? physical? Making someone grieve?
or Intimidating = doubtful
or Threatening = doubtful
or Defrauding = Te’o stated no.
another person = Te’o. so, yes.
So, was it credible and did it harm. Worth investigating I would think. Harm/Credible element is likely why hoaxers lawyer is pushing just a joke - it’s Hollywood, man. Can anyone think of why this law wouldn’t apply. It says effective Jan 1, 2011. Am I missing something obvious?