Emily Rose Grover Florida teen caught rigging Homecoming Queen contest charged as adult, faces 16 years jail if convicted against all charges against her.
A Florida girl who allegedly rigged the homecoming queen vote at her high school will face charges as an adult, officials confirmed Tuesday.
Emily Rose Grover, who was 17 when the alleged crime happened, turned 18 in April. ABC 13 reports. The State Attorney’s Office in Escambia County said that Grover will face charges as an adult.
Grover and her mother, Laura Rose Carroll, 50, are accused of illegally accessing school records to generate over 100 fraudulent votes for Grover, who was vying for a spot on Tate High School’s Homecoming Court in Pensacola.
Carroll is the school’s assistant principal, and allegedly abused her access to the student record system to cast the bogus votes, leading to her daughter’s Homecoming victory.
Both mother and daughter, face felony charges, including computer hacking and fraud, which could see the pair, from Cantonment in Florida, being sentenced up to 16 years in jail according to the Pensacola News Journal.
Rigged voting
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement reportedly said that un-authorized activity in the school’s record system was connected to Carroll’s cell phone and home electronic devices. Her daughter was elected to the Homecoming Court with 246 votes — 117 of those which came from the same IP address in a short period of time.
Additionally, the teen suspect reportedly made incriminating statements, telling fellow students that her mother had repeatedly accessed un-authorized student information in the past.
Carroll and her daughter face multiple third-degree felony counts, including unlawful use of a two-way communications device, and criminal use of personally identifiable information. Both suspects are currently free on bond.
If convicted on all counts, both mother and daughter could be imprisoned until 2037. It is thought that the teen girl could still be handed a more lenient juvenile sentence if convicted, according to prosecutors.
