Guilty Plea in Exposing Easton Facebook Case

A Newark man will plead guilty to creating a Facebook page claiming to chronicle the sex lives of young Easton women.

Peter Murphy waived his preliminary Friday hearing before Senior District Judge Sherwood Grigg in downtown Easton. 

His attorney, Mark Minotti, told the judge he hopes to roll the harassment charges against Murphy into a separate, pending burglary case. 

The investigation began in March, when a woman from Easton contacted police about the Facebook page, concerned that it was a form of cyber-bullying and could cause the young women featured to harm themselves.

"Exposing Easton" was up for just a few days, but gathered 1,500 fans before Facebook took it down for violating its rules. It caught the attention of police and Easton Area School District officials, since some of the young women featured were apparently Easton students.

Det. Christopher Miller was able to trace the IP address that set up the page to an account owned by Murphy's mother, court records say.

Murphy admitted to setting up the page out of "spite and revenge," police said.

After being charged in May, Murphy seemed to express some remorse in court, telling police ""After this, you'll never hear from me again."

Minotti said Murphy is going through a drug and alcohol treatment program at the prison, and is "doing very well."