A Mass. woman wrote an essay about a ‘traumatic sexual encounter.’ Then the man it was about started threatening her.
The woman's essay, which was published in an online magazine, was about a 2001 sexual encounter she allegedly had with the man when she was about 13 and he was around 17. She did not name him in the piece.
A 35-year-old Florida man pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges related to launching an “extensive cyberstalking and threats campaign” against a Massachusetts woman.
The woman, who is 30, told officials she became the target of an 18-month crusade of harassment and threats after publishing an essay in an online magazine describing a “traumatic sexual encounter” she had with Byron Cardozo when she was about 13.
The woman wrote about the incident she said happened when Cardozo was around 17 and they went to the same school in Florida. She was in middle school and he was in high school at the time.
She didn’t use Cardozo’s real name or others in the piece, according to the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office, but he found the essay online.
He then sent her hundreds of communications, court documents allege, many of which were in the comments section of the essay. In those comments, he included graphic descriptions of the 2001 sexual encounter, which he said was consensual.
Cardozo also reportedly made “express and implicit” threats to injure the woman and sometimes threatened to kill himself “because of you.”
At other times, authorities said, he expressed his love for her and asked for forgiveness.
Court documents say Cardozo used fake social media accounts, including ones on Facebook and Twitter, to send the woman hundreds of messages.
Though she received a court order in April 2017, two months after the harassment began, barring Cardozo from communicating with her, officials say he didn’t stop.
A comment he posted on the essay in March 2018 read, “[I] WILL HAUNT YOU FOR THE REST OF YOUR PATHETIC LIFE. .. . [AM I] MAKING [MYSELF] CRYSTAL CLEAR?” according to court documents, and continued, “WE ARE WAITING.”
Other comments said he wished someone had raped her and that she would “know fear” by the time “this s*** is over”
In July 2018, documents allege he wrote that he would “devote the rest of my miserable life to destroying yours.”
The case was investigated by the FBI, and Cardozo was indicted in August 2018.
He pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of cyberstalking and making interstate threats, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Cardozo is facing up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.
