Education

Wyoming ‘hate-f***’ hoaxer adds to checkered criminal past, now attends law school

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The latest criminal saga involving former University of Wyoming student Meghan Lanker-Simons has come to an end not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Lanker-Simons announced her intention to plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge of interfering with a peace officer, reports the Laramie Boomerang.

In exchange for the plea, the strident leftist will receive a “minimal” fine and no prison sentence. The maximum penalty would have been a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

The charge relates to a social media hoax police say Lanker-Simons perpetrated back in April by authoring an unsigned posting on a Facebook page called UW Crushes reading:

“I want to hatefuck Meg Lanker Simons so hard. That chick runs her liberal mouth all the time and doesn’t care who knows it. I think its so hot and makes me angry. One night with me and shes gonna be a good Republican bitch.”

The posting brought national attention. There was an angry rally. Initially, the administration stood firmly behind Lanker-Simons. A school official denounced “rape culture.” (RELATED: Police say 28-year-old undergrad threatened herself with rape in Facebook hoax)

Before she was charged, Lanker-Simons hit the feminist warpath. “They’re treating this like there’s someone harboring violent sexual fantasies towards fellow students, and has stated a desire to act upon them,” she wrote on her blog. “Now, I know having the fantasies is not a crime—voicing them to threaten and intimidate, well, possibly a different story there.” (RELATED: Meg Lanker-Simons is under the gun)

However, when police investigated the incident, they quickly determined that Lanker-Simons posted the message on her computer while it was in her possession. Police say this ham-handed obstruction of the investigation led to the charge against her. (RELATED: CSI: Laramie: How cops busted Lanker-Simons)

The local county attorney’s office was prepared to bring the case.

“I know this is a case…I’m able to take it to trial, I’m willing to take this to trial,” prosecutor Joshua Merseal told the judge.

He said it “would be more of a mess than the expense warrants,” though.

Lanker-Simons, 28, can now go on her merry way to the law school that accepted her. The Boomerang refused to identify this law school, noting only its location in a western state.

The Daily Caller did a little research. Lanker-Simons — who seems to have changed her name (again) to Meg Simons — maintains a Tumblr blog called Cognitive Dissonance. While the cat-filled blog is coy about her whereabouts, it does suggest that she has recently moved to the western state of Washington—home to three law schools.

On August 21, 2013, the day before Lanker-Simons added an entry discussing 1L orientation, she posted an image on the Tumblr blog on August 21, 2013 with the caption “Oh my God” which appears to show the Gonzaga University School of Law.

U.S. News currently ranks Gonzaga #113 on its list of the best law schools. There are 203 ABA-approved law schools across the nation.

Three years from now, Lanker-Simons may have trouble passing a bar exam in any state where the exam contains a character-and-fitness component.

This latest no-contest plea isn’t the law student’s first rodeo in Wyoming’s criminal system. She was also convicted of aggravated assault over a bizarre gun-brandishing incident. (RELATED: Wyo. student who threatened to rape self on Facebook was convicted of assault)

In 2005, after Lanker-Simons was fired from a radio station in the fall, she returned and pulled a Glock 22 .40 caliber handgun from her purse. She waved the semi-automatic pistol around. She pointed it at the man who sacked her. He testified that he was “in fear for his life.”

The radio station was evacuated. Police caught Lanker-Simons as she tried to flee the scene in her vehicle. They held her at gunpoint.

In July 2006, Lanker-Simons — then known as Meghan Michelena — was sentenced to six years of probation. Her term of probation was subject to a number of conditions. She had to undergo counseling, complete community service, pay fines and apologize to her victims. She was also prevented from owning any guns.

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Tags : hoax rape
Eric Owens