Viral Facebook Post Alleges Man Is a Wanted Rapist, But He's Not
Earlier this week, Toledo resident Chad Lesko was walking around a local park when an angry stranger approached the 23-year-old and told him he had to leave. “He just walks up to me and says, ‘You’re not allowed in this park because you’re a rapist,’” Lesko recalled yesterday over the phone. “I’m like, ‘No, I’m not!’”
What Lesko didn’t know was that a Facebook post accusing him of being a wanted child molester had gone viral:
Except the allegations weren't true. Lesko was not wanted by the Toledo Police for anything.
A Juggalo who started attending church about eight months ago, Lesko went to a meeting there and someone called the authorities. "The church people had seen my picture on Facebook, so then the cops showed up and ran my name, but I had nothing come up," he told me. "When I was on the way home, I had another cop stop me and actually slam me to the ground because he thought I was wanted."
The Nicole McCarthy profile, a dummy page created by Lesko's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his son (who confessed to posting the slanderous accusation on a local radio show), came down on Wednesday, but only after the false accusation had more than 30,000 shares.
“It really pisses me off because I would never do that," Lesko said. "I was abused as a child and beaten as a child and I’m really against that. If you have to put your hands on a child, that’s the lowest way to go.”
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