One man says he was bombarded with obscene text messages for years. He wasn’t getting anywhere with police, so he contacted 7Investigates with Courtney Allen.
Joseph Oceguera has been helping people as a physical therapist in South Florida for decades. But at the time in his life when he needed help most, he says he was met with resistance.
Joseph Oceguera: “You are telling me that we can’t solve this? No, that is not acceptable.”
Oceguera turned to 7Investigates after years of receiving text messages from fake numbers.
Joseph Ocgeuera: “This, unfortunately, went on for three years and ended up being 30 different phone numbers and over 95 exchanges of texts.”
And he kept the texts. They’re too obscene to show on TV, full of profanities, insults, derogatory slurs and sexual content.
Joseph Ocgeuera: “I never thought in my lifetime, I was going to deal with something like this.”
Oceguera believes they all came from the same person with the intent of hurting him. Like when they talked about his late mother.
Joseph Ocgeuera: “When my mom died, it went into me being a bad son, that I didn’t take care of her, etc. etc. Which is completely opposite.”
The texts even mentioned his children.
Joseph Ocgeuera: “One of them even has to deal with my daughter, who, she was dating at the time, and made a comment about that.”
Oceguera says he tried to stay strong but the texts wore on him.
Joseph Ocgeuera: “In the end, you still have a breaking point, you have things in the back of your head that keep you up at night.”
He became concerned for his and his family’s safety.
Joseph Ocgeuera: “That sense that you have to start looking over your shoulder. Is there somebody out there that wants to hurt me?”
Ocegeura’s filed a report with the Miami Dade Sheriff’s Office in 2021, but he says nothing happened. We asked why. They said there wasn’t enough evidence to move forward with the case. We also asked other law enforcement agencies about this issue, they told us that unsolicited texts are not a police matter.
Brandon Gonzalez: “It’s a hard case to prove, in any aspect. So it’s hard to be taken seriously.”
Attorney Brandon Gonzalez says part of the challenge is that sending repeated, harassing text messages is not a crime in the state of Florida. He believes that needs to change.
Brandon Gonzalez: “A lot of people are saying, ‘This is such a nuisance, what if my daughter is getting these messages, what if my son is getting these messages? And how do you stop that?'”
We shared Ocegeura’s story with state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. And asked whether the legislature should criminalize sending harassing text messages. Representative Juan Carlos Porras says it may be time to change the laws.
State Rep. Juan Carlos Porras: “I think there is a good conversation to, what should our harassment statutes be updated as? Obviously, a lot of these laws are over 20 years old, and now with the rise of text messaging and social media, there are all these new ways people can get harassed either sexually or just for text.”
State Representative Dan Daley also told us he thinks something needs to be done and that he will try to address the issue during this session.
State Rep. Dan Daley: “Someone needs to step in and say, ‘Hey, enough is enough. Let’s deal with this problem.'”
In the meantime, Ocegeura’s filed a complaint with the Federal Communication Commission, reached out to phone companies, members of Congress, and the Governor.
Joseph Ocgeuera: “I have been relentless sending this information out there.”
He hopes sharing his story can help others.
Lawmakers said they’re also considering more regulations on companies that provide anonymous texting services. They’ll also look at getting more funding to police departments to investigate these types of cases.
Ocegeura says he eventually confronted who he thought was responsible and the texts stopped.
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