Great...So i can use a laptop to Remote back into my house computer, send a Facebook update, then rob a bank and get away with it. AWESOME!!

This could set a precedent for other people to try to abuse this. What if he did take part in the robbery but he has somebody post this from that particular computer so as to trick the system?

lucky for him he has an alibi. But there is also a possiblity that some else used his facebook account.

Hmmm .. Logmein please?

As if it's impossible to give someone else your account info.....

it's certainly possible to log in remotely from a mobile device or laptop and easily make the post from the home computer, but I have my doubts that someone posting "ON THE PHONE WITH THIS FAT CHICK . . . . . WHERER MY I HOP" would have the know-how to do this... somebody should explain to DA that this sets a pretty dumb precedent. Good thing a judge didn't make that assumption.

Duhhhh that's what happens when you get corporate weenies who don't know J@ck about the internet/computers or how it can be used. LOL, pathetic and these guys are the ones who are SUPPOSE to be protecting us!! Lets get some real cyber knowledgeable ppl in there...please.

With bad grammar like that, he doesn't deserve an alibi!

There are SOOO many ways to have an account post something on the net while being somewhere else... Logmein and even somebody else are two simple examples

Did they check his phone records to see if he was on the phone. Did they check with the fat chick to see if she could back up his story. This doesnt sound like the whole story to me. I bet they checked his phone records, and facebook, and talked to the "fat chick".

[quote=wherrertr]Great...So i can use a laptop to Remote back into my house computer, send a Facebook update, then rob a bank and get away with it. AWESOME!![/quote]Given what the suspect posted I don't think he was intelligent enough to think of something this intricate. That or he is a diabolical genius whom spent his life setting up the persona of an idiot.

Bloody hell about a 1000 reasons why just because it says it came from a computer doesn't mean
a) it actually did come from that computer (remote desktop is a wonderful thing)
b) it was actually him that posted it.

Maybe we could all go out rob a bank and at the same time get our girlfriends to post a message on our facebook account...or maybe use a remote desktop app on a smart phone to use the browser on our home PC to post.

Maybe even spend 10 minutes to write a piece of code that automatically goes to a website and posts junk at a specific time.

I think they must have had a weak case to begin with. So a piece of weak exculpatory evidence was enough for them to drop it. If they'd had a stronger case, then they would probably not have accepted that since he could have just left his computer logged in with a status update written and told someone to hit the ENTER key at some certain time (hence no chance of tracing back a remote access).

He is a 19-year old innocent kid caught up in the mix...lucky for him he was online at the time...all other commentary about his intelligence says more about the authors than it does about the kid...

Well, that depends on the details of the case:
Why was he accused of the robbery? UK's got cameras, do they show him exiting/leaving his house in a timely fashion? Does his dad know his facebook account? Do they show him leaving his house directly after this?

If those are satisfied, then dismissal approved.

I do not believe this status update to be correct, because I have seen in the past for myself when my step daughter I thought had just posted status update on personal sight on my space ,but to my surprize it was done much earlier in the evening but the time it showed on her sight was incorrect I know this for a fact. I really think this might of also happened in this case the same way.

show me teh packets!!11

There should be a separate judicial system for crimes involving technology.

"A boy accused of playing a part in a robbery was been released after his attorney used his Facebook status to prove his innocence."

Ah. Was been released.

Sorry Jane, I didn't finish the rest. If you can't fix simple errors in your headline I have no confidence in the rest of your article.

I'm sorry if that is rude but this is a Technology News and Hardware site. If you can't edit your own paper properly or find someone else to edit it you really don't have any business writing in the first place. This isn't middle school although I would probably expect a middle school student to be able to locate that error.

Sad. Sad how far Tom's Guide has fallen.

Just going to the NYT's article, you can see why he got charged in the first place, he was black, the police & DA wanted a scapegoat; typical bullsh*t!!!

Alot of the responses are all about remote desktop. Yes, it IS possible that could have happened. BUT in order to do that on a smartphone you would have to sit and deal with a slow connection and a very small screen. On a laptop it would be much faster but you need to sit down, establish the connection then send the message.
Did anyone stop to think that if they were doing all that during the robbery they wouldn't have time to actually DO the robbery OR even have enough time to escape from the scene before the police got there?
Yes, it is possible that someone could remote desktop to another computer and send something from that remote computer, but the likelihood of that actually happening and being able to pull off a robbery is slim to none!

Sounds to me like the DA actually did the right thing to me. Once the DA verified through Facebook about the post and where and when it happened they did what they should have done. Drop the charges. At least in this case the right thing was done.

They ought to find the "fat chick" he was on the phone with and question her...

Maybe the DA should talk to the fat chick he was on the phone with at the time, lol..

Shit, Transmaniacon beat me too it, haha.

Without any other evidence against him, I would say that it's a good enough alibi. "Innocent until proven guilty." Now if they had other evidence that put him at the robbery it could be argued that someone else posted the FB status change to try and give him the alibi, but it doesn't sound like the DA had anything else on him.

People are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. Obviously the DA didn't have sufficient evidence in the first place.

As it has been said before, this kid could have taken a laptop to the robbery location, used a third-party remote access software or the built in remote software and post the entry. Of course, the "less complicated" answer is that his father posted the entry for his criminal kid and got him an alibi.

If they actually did their job and verified that the people involved were not lying, then fine. This is still a really weak shit alibi.

The fat chick was siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing on the keyboard shen she sent the status update from his computer. Planned nicely.

Need to rob a bank? There's an app for that-