Official Update Regarding Riley Robinson

I like the word Rileytoh Much better than Rileygate anyway

And this is yet another example of why our lawyer is THE BEST :joy

Aduiavas Ida said:

I like the word Rileytoh Much better than Rileygate anyway

And this is yet another example of why our lawyer is THE BEST :joy

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Ditto! Rileytoh`s a good word.

I, of course, often repeat what Eleyan said. My heart breaks because I knew him back before he even took the post. He received it because so many felt he was honest and forthright.

Here is my question because even though he did a bad thing and upset many people and broke the law...does the website board have any sway into the penalty phase if he is convicted? I ask because nine years is hard time. He has kids and a family. Can we not just ask that he repay what he owes and owes to the IRS? Does he have to go to jail or is it out of our hands?

I doubt it's in the hands of the board anymore, but if they have any say at all, I would personally hope they asked for the harshest penalty possible. I hope he goes to jail for all nine years. I hope he has to pay the full fine according to the law, as well as pay us back entirely. I hope he is paying for it decades from now and it's getting taken out of his paycheck by court order, month by month, so he never forgets.

Many people have kids and a family and they manage not to steal tens of thousands of dollars from their supposed friends. I'm sure he feels remorse, because he was caught, but if he hadn't been caught I'm also sure he would have kept stealing thousands more. After all, new iPhones come out once or twice a year and they need funding. This shouldn't be rewarded with sunshine and daffodils and pure hearts of compassion.

Forgive me for not having a soul or whatever, but we should not repay embezzlement with compassion and leniency. We aren't your online bank for new gadgets and vehicles, easy to dupe and easy to forgive, even if you steal tens of thousands of dollars from us. I understand why people are applauding each other's consideration and civility and sense of forgiveness, but it sort of makes me sick to see it. I have no compassion for a low-life who steals from the people who loved him and entrusted him with responsibilities he didn't deserve and did not honor. I have no compassion for someone who lies to his friends so blatantly and hurts them so carelessly. If I had stolen so much money from the people who loved me and lied through my teeth to them in such a brazen fashion, betraying all their trust, I would never expect to be forgiven and anyone who did forgive me, I'd flat-out think they were a sucker. You can only be so nice and compassionate and forgiving before you become a doormat.

Far be it from me to dictate how everyone decide for themselves how far one must go to abuse one's friends' trust before a line is crossed and one doesn't deserve a lenient response, but that's my perspective. As far as I'm concerned, if I'm here in Israel, the line that shouldn't be crossed is somewhere around China (I'm pretty forgiving of friends), but Riley's shot himself right over to somewhere around Neptune's orbit. With his new iPhone. And he deserves everything that comes to him.

I remember where I was when I got the call.
I remember the panic, frustration, anger, and sadness.
I remember those who stepped up so that Fall Ball could be re-funded.

I remember.

I will never forget.

And it will be quite a while longer before I consider forgiveness.

Hi guys,

Although I had forgotten about this whole situation, I'm glad that others did not. I definitely want Riley dealt with, according to his actions, by the law.

Kim

Sela Narian said:

Many people have kids and a family and they manage not to steal tens of thousands of dollars from their supposed friends.
/../
Forgive me for not having a soul or whatever, but we should not repay embezzlement with compassion and leniency.

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I think you're spot on, Sela. Personally I'd say that if anything, stealing from a non-profit, charity organisation makes it even worse, morally, than stealing from, say, some big corporation. About the only reason I'd see for some leniency would be something along the lines of having no health insurance, being broke and needing medicine for a dying child (which I gather was not the case here). Still wouldn't make it right in any way, but it would make it more understandable.

Totally second everything Sela said.

--Trigger warning for some victimology talk.--



Also worth remembering that Riley portrayed himself as an interpersonal and moral authority on here, from a longstanding "advice" thread in general to how he dealt with people on a more personal level.

You know what that's called, folks? That's called grooming victims.

To be frank, I've known Riley a lot longer than most of the people in this thread. And was closer to him at one point than most people here.

I wasn't in the administration, but like Yele I remember the feelings of panic and violation that coursed through the tower when this came out. The incomprehensibility of it. But that's part of what victim-grooming does: make what actually happened unbelievable and surreal. The insidious nature of the internal conflicts produced within us, the cognitive dissonance and its externalizations, all contribute to a wounded psyche that bleeds for ages, causing (even unconscious) self-doubt and benefits the offender.

Like Sela, I hope that TarValon.Net is consulted in any penalty phase, and I hope it requests the harshest possible penalties.

I'm just going to add my unasked-for two cents because I feel like I fall somewhere in the middle ground, here.

I was not close to Riley. I never met him and barely had any interaction with him on the boards. That doesn't mean, however, that I didn't feel the shock and betrayal that someone in authority on this site had done something like this. The anger that he dared to do this and apparently thought we (or the others in charge) were too stupid to figure it out.... Probably not to the same extent as some, since I didn't have a significant investment in him as a person, but I still felt it because I do have a significant investment in this community.

Forgiveness, however, is something I do for me, not for him. Forgiveness doesn't mean that I don't think he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I still want to see justice done. I want all the money he stole paid back, and while I feel for his family if he ends up in jail, I don't feel bad for him. I believe the law will see he's punished appropriately. I can trust in the system in this case (especially when we have Hammar O'Justice on our side!)

Forgiveness, for me, means that I don't have to hold onto the anger. I can have compassion and still want justice.

I can feel badly for his family (re: children) and still wish for appropriate justice. It's very conflicting.

And please don't empathy-shame me for this, but I can understand the call for a degree of leniency in consideration of his family, who I would think would be innocent in all this (although maybe I am wrong about that - just a guess.) I recently read an article about the lives that the children of traumatic events are destined to live and maybe that's sticking in my mind and making me feel this way.

Just a random thought - is the situation of a family considered when it comes to the severity of judgement? Does it depend on the crime, etc? ...is that an attorney's job? I feel suddenly very stupid about this topic :shifty

Maybe Riley should have thought of all of that before he put his family in this position. He certainly didn't think of the ramifications to the site. He didn't just steal from some blank-faced non-profit organization, which is bad enough. He stole from his supposed friends. I think this should be pursued to the harshest penalty.

I'm pretty sure his family suffered as they got new iPhones, a new car, a trip to Disney, etc. Such suffering, very woe.

I wonder where they think the money came from for those things. Maybe he said it was due to his career change?

"Bonuses" or "freelance" or "extra clients".

Or ... Maybe he told them the tower loaned it to them. It's known the tower does help out its members, so it wouldn't be that surprising.

/speculation

Nom nom

Autumn Sapphira said:

Forgiveness, however, is something I do for me, not for him. Forgiveness doesn't mean that I don't think he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I still want to see justice done. I want all the money he stole paid back, and while I feel for his family if he ends up in jail, I don't feel bad for him. I believe the law will see he's punished appropriately. I can trust in the system in this case (especially when we have Hammar O'Justice on our side!)

Forgiveness, for me, means that I don't have to hold onto the anger. I can have compassion and still want justice.

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These are my feelings exactly.

Autumn Sapphira said:

Forgiveness, however, is something I do for me, not for him. Forgiveness doesn't mean that I don't think he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I still want to see justice done. I want all the money he stole paid back, and while I feel for his family if he ends up in jail, I don't feel bad for him. I believe the law will see he's punished appropriately. I can trust in the system in this case (especially when we have Hammar O'Justice on our side!)

Forgiveness, for me, means that I don't have to hold onto the anger. I can have compassion and still want justice.

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Well said and a great definition of forgiveness

Miridyth Al'Landerin said:

Here is my question because even though he did a bad thing and upset many people and broke the law...does the website board have any sway into the penalty phase if he is convicted?

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If there is a guilty verdict, during the sentencing phase there is usually testimony or some other statement from the victim.

Tazren Talamar said:

I think you're spot on, Sela. Personally I'd say that if anything, stealing from a non-profit, charity organisation makes it even worse, morally, than stealing from, say, some big corporation.

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I have to tap the brakes here a a bit.

Let me clarify that we do not, today, have any evidence that Riley stole funds allocated for transfer to charitable entities.

As the wise Frenchman Jean-Luc Picard will say 350 years from now, "If we're going to be damned, let's be damned for what we really are."