Woman arrested on suspicion of cyberstalking and threatening Kris Jenner
A Bay Area woman was arrested Thursday on federal cyberstalking and hacking charges for allegedly harassing Kris Jenner as well as several of her family members and assistants over a six-month period, officials said.
Christina Elizabeth Bankston, 36, was taken into custody by FBI special agents at her home in Newark pursuant to a 15-count indictment that was returned by a federal grand jury on July 26 and unsealed Thursday. She is expected to make her first federal court appearance in Oakland on Friday, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Bankston, a nurse’s assistant, is suspected of sending hundreds of threatening and illicit text messages to TV reality star Jenner, her former spouse Caitlyn Jenner, two unnamed family members and two assistants between March 9 and Sept. 5, 2014. She is also accused of hacking Jenner’s Instagram and iCloud accounts and making multiple calls to police in which she impersonated Jenner.
According to the indictment, Bankston allegedly claimed to have a sex tape of Jenner and threatened to release it, told police that Jenner’s sister was attempting to commit suicide by cutting her wrists, and made repeated references to wanting to see Jenner naked and engaged in sexual activity, in addition to numerous other offenses.
Bankston used a variety of aliases including “Jacky Jasper” and “Browbuster,” the indictment says, and her messages included: “I am so in love with you, its crazy, you know me btw”, “Call in extra security tonight….Btw I’m tracking you,” and “U could try but u could never find me.”
“The defendant in this case went to great lengths to stalk and even impersonate her victims to concoct disturbing scenarios that could have put lives in danger,” Deirdre Fike, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office said in a statement.
Bankston is charged with six federal counts of stalking, four counts of computer hacking, one count of extortion by threat and four counts of aggravated identity theft.
If she is convicted, each of the cyberstalking and computer hacking offenses carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison, and the aggravated identity theft charge carries a mandatory two-year consecutive sentence.
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