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Girl admits to fake social media profile in Watts Middle School threats case

CENTERVILLE — A Watts Middle School student had her making terroristic threats dropped after she admitted to telecommunications fraud.

The girl posted threats to kill people at the Centerville middle school twice but walked out of the Juvenile Detention Center this morning.

>> RELATED: Charges dropped against teen accused of threatening Centerville middle school

She was arrested a week ago Sunday after it became clear that a male eighth grade students at Watts who was initially arrested was not responsible for the threats.

But an agreement worked out among her lawyer, juvenile prosecutors and her parents had two serious charges dropped and will let her go home.

Magistrate Nicole Xarhoulacos announced that prosecutors agreed to drop the making terroristic threats and inducing panic if the middle school students admitted to telecommunications fraud.

The judge tried to stress to the girl how many people were affected by the threats she posted after creating an account under a male student’s name.

“You’ve spent 10 days in detention. I could remove you from your home until the age of 21, do you understand that?” said Magistrate Xarhoulacos.

Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies and prosecutors said that the girl created a fake Instagram account that appeared to belong to the 14-year-old boy.

His mother shared a portion of the account with News Center 7, including a post supposedly saying he hated everyone at school and would bring a gun and kill three people.

>> RELATED: Two juveniles arrested for Centerville middle school threats

Jennifer Davis, the boy’s mother, said the family knew right away that it wasn’t his account.

But he wasn’t cleared until three days after he was arrested.

Deputies arrested him on a Friday, but while on house arrest and without access to electronics, a similar threat was posted by the same account Sunday.

That’s when deputies tracked down the girl they said created the fake account and arrested her.

“It felt like a nightmare,” said Davis. “Like any minute they’ll knock and take my son away again.”

News Center 7’s Mike Campbell reached out to Centerville schools about the case.

“We can't provide details due to student confidentiality,” the district said. “The school discipline for the first student was rescinded, and the second student does have school consequences.”

The court magistrate said the girl has never been in trouble before and decided to suspend a six-month sentence for the telecommunications fraud, urging the girl to learn from the incident.

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“That’s what this comes down to,” said Magistrate Xarhoulacos. “I don’t think people understand that once things are online, they’re there forever. It’s instantaneous. I understand that but it can affect your life forever. Do you understand that?”

A six-month sentenced was imposed at the department of youth services, but the judge suspended that time as long as the girl doesn’t get into any further trouble.

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