Open Friday Manti Te'o Thread: What would convince you that Te'o was duped? [New info]

Unfortunately, I think the biggest sports story of our lifetime came from PSU. 

Uh, no. The Jerry Sandusky thing.

For OJ.

There are theories out there that he would really enjoy it...

Don't forget, she was the most beautiful girl in the world, not just her physical beauty, but her character.

only if the purpose of it was primarily just to raise awareness

What personal gain did anyone make from this? What crime did anybody commit?  Show me some money changing hands, and then the FBI can get involved.

maybe an intentional/negligent infliction of emotional distress?  Hmmmm, hard to prove alone and usually only an element of a larger case.  How much money was spent by Te'o?  Did he buy her gifts?  Did he pay for a plane ticket to Hawaii?

Perpetrating a hoax is not itself criminal activity. To be wire fraud (which is a federal crime), the use of the wires has to involve a "scheme or artifice to defraud," and that scheme has to directly involve the aquisition of money or property. Even if we assume the worst about Te'o's "scheme" was designed to obtained good will, which is not fraud. You could TRY to argue that his scheme was designed to increase his draft status, and therefore to obtain money, but there is no way that charge sticks. Besides, the use of the wires has to be done to accomplish an essential part of the scheme or artifice, and here the existence of phone calls to this fake person was not essential to, nor did it form part of, the scheme.

Now, if someone did perpetrate this hoax against Te'o to obtain money or something else, that might be textbook wire fraud.

(For reference: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1343)

People began fund raisers to raise money for cancer awareness, but that didn't go to Manti, that went to research centers.

"Dan Tudesco set up an online account at fundraising website indiegogo.com on Jan. 9. His goal was to raise $5,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in memory of Lennay Kekua... He says the more than $4,300 raised will still go to the leukemia group." (ABCNews)

"Tudesco said he and three friends got the fundraising idea after seeing a video that went viral of Tudesco holding his head in dismay during the Irish's 42-14 loss to Alabama in the national championship game on Jan. 7.

The goal was to turn the loss -- and the player's sudden popularity -- into something positive.

'I think we were all kind of disappointed in the result of the game ... and the Manti story was very inspirational,' Tudesco told The Associated Press on Thursday....Tudesco said he doesn't know Te'o personally and had no contact with him or Notre Dame before setting up the fundraiser. He said money raised by his fundraiser will be held in reserve by indiegogo and released directly to the charity at the end of the campaign." (ESPN)

of those super long calls from his phone bill would prove he was complicit.  but you are correct, if they are there they can be used to say that he was in on it and did that as part of the hoax, or that he was not in on it and was duped.  but if they aren't on there then he was duped for sure.

What i'd like to hear is from his roommate (if he has one) - did he ever see Te'o make those calls?

This was not a super sophisticated hoax designed to hold up to serious media scrutiny. The girlfriend was a Stanford student - easily disproven. She could have simply been a fan attending the game. There was no attempt to plant a false obituary notice anywhere. Given that, I'm not inclined to believe Te'o would have done the detailed planning needed to show he was the innocent victim of a hoax in case it unraveled. I wasn't asking what would constitute absolute proof that he was duped, only what would make us believe it.

Upon reflection, the phone records might not make the best evidence. Of course the absence of those long calls would be damning, but I'm not sure how much their presence would mean. Manti implied that his family was paying his AT&T bill. If the fake girlfriend was an invention to fool his family, he would have anticipating their seeing those calls on the bill.

Innocent until proven guilty is for the legal system, not for the court of public opinion. We lack subpoena power.

It is particularly odd that it happened to ND's heisman runner-up star linebacker. 

I could see a player doing something stupid like this...but in these circumstaces there's gotta be more to it.  Doesn't smell right. 

I'm personally in favor of the "fake-girlfriend-so-I'm-not-outed-and-then-she/he-blackmailed-me-because-I'm-about-to-make-millions" theory...but who knows. 

Don't forget about fucking Valentine's Day.

let this be true and let it come out. 

Exactly. The immediate presser is what really has me thinking ND was in on this from the start. Full on crisis PR mode.

You know, that was my first thought when this whole thing came out. I think he was just trying to add fuel to the "Te'o for Heisman" flames...

Certainly helped, you can't definitively say he wouldn't have finished second otherwise, but likewise you can't immediately dismiss the possibility that he might have ridden this story to New York either.

The longer he waits to the worse he looks.

Even if the address belongs to a dude, how do we know that he is someone who catfished Te'o instead of Te'o's boyfriend.

Sorry for my ignorance but what happened with Roll Damn Tide? I remember his posts and have seen several references since then. Thanks

The other day I went back and looked at some old RDT posts. After which, I'm a firm believer that he was just using info from sec premium boards. He gets a lot of flack for Ty Isaac (deservedly so) but he was right about just about everything else. Which leads me to believe he was posting premium info. Not having access to any sec premium boards, I obviously can't check.