A YouTuber covering the disappearance of Tennessee teen Sebastian Rogers has been ordered by a judge to stay away from the missing teen's parents, as the search for missing boy enters its eight month.
Katie Proudfoot, mother of missing 15-year-old Sebastian Rogers, filed an order of protection against true crime YouTuber "Bullhorn Betty" (real name Andrea Griffin) following the disappearance of her son on Feb. 26. The order was filed in July after Griffin began covering Rogers' disappearance.
Griffin, who was arrested for violating that order in August, had another order of protection filed against her by Rogers' step father, Christopher Proudfoot.
The hearing for Christopher's order took place on Thursday, when Christopher expressed concerns for his own safety coupled with allegations that Griffin had been stalking him, WKRN reported.
Griffin testified that, while she had never had direct contact with Christopher, she visited his neighborhood in pursuit of accuracy for her coverage of Rogers' disappearance, and she also confirmed visiting his place of work.
"When your client goes to my job, my house, my campsites, yes, that is stalking," said Christopher on the stand.
Griffin's defense argued that the YouTuber was well within her First Amendment right to express her opinion on the case, and that she had covered many other cases in a similar fashion. However, the prosecution submitted one of Griffin's own videos as evidence that Griffin alleged that the Proudfoots were somehow involved in their son's disappearance.
"Katie and Chris are trained to kill, period," Griffin was quoted saying in the video submitted for evidence by the prosecution. "They are trained not only how to kill, but how to handle that."
"I feel that she got rid of her defective child for one that wasn't, if you want my truth," Griffin continued in the video.
According to law enforcement, there is no evidence that the Proudfoots had anything to do with Rogers' disappearance.
Chrisopher's order of protection was granted, with the judge determining that he was being harassed by Griffin.
"She states that she is an investigative journalist and that she reports on news commentary," said Judge Rob Blanton. "Somewhere along the lines, this turned not into the pursuit to find Sebastian Rogers. It turned into a personal vendetta."
Sebastian's biological father, Seth Rogers, spoke up in support of Griffin.
"What I heard today is: you're not allowed to have free speech," Seth said. "You're not allowed to sit there and ask...the hard questions and get an answer. Those are two or four scared cowards, in my opinion, and if they're going to try to take away one of my voices. They're going to have to get ready for my voice."
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