NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Cease and desist letters were sent out to social media users threatening and harassing individuals looking for missing Tennessee teen Sebastian Rogers.
Dog the Bounty Hunter and Seth Rogers, Sebastian’s biological father, said they’ve experienced online harassment and have seen the threats only increase.
Seth has actively searched for his son Sebastian since he went missing in February.
“I’m just hoping for a positive outcome from this,” Sebastian’s biological father, Seth Rogers, said. “That he is alive, that he is healthy so I can bring him home.”
Duane Chapman, better known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, joined the search this month and raised the reward for information leading to an arrest or finding of Sebastian to $100,000.
“They bring a social media team, they bring an investigative team, and they bring a legal team,” Spokesperson for Seth Rogers, Tony Mathis, said. “And those are things that were all desperately needed. In addition to Dog’s passion and the overall horsepower of his organization, The case has been amplified tenfold just in the last two weeks.”
“This is not the first rodeo for me finding a missing child,” Dog the Bounty Hunter said. “We are working on every lead we can get. NiktheHat and I are getting so many leads.”
“There’s cameras that we are now going after,” Dog added.
But Dog said in less than a month of joining the search, they have received countless threats.
“It’s really bad,” Dog explained. “I mean, they have threatened Seth’s family […] and written letters to their employers, to their people, and that has got to stop.”
“People run their mouth,” Seth expressed. “There’s keyboard warriors every day. They want to send death threats and things to people, but they are cowards.”
In response, the Law Offices of Joseph Lesniak, representing At Night Productions, Duane “Dog” Chapman, Seth Rogers, Tony Mathis, and several other individuals, cite eleven reasons for the cease-and-desist letters.
“What Lesniak is doing is he is issuing cease and desists with a copy of the federal injunctions attached as a warning shot,” Tony Mathis, spokesperson for Seth Rogers explained. “What they are trying to do is not get people to quit talking about Sebastian. They are trying to get people to quit harassing and attacking the people that are intimately involved with the case.”
“They have kind of taken over the airwaves and created a defamation campaign against my clients,” Attorney Joseph Lesniak stated. “Instead of keeping their eye on the real important thing here, which is finding this young man.”
One of two letters sent out begins by saying, “The search for Sebastian is a critical and sensitive matter, and your reckless interference is not just irresponsible – it’s illegal.”
According to the Law Offices of Joseph Lesniak, some instances of interference are encouraging false allegations, flooding false leads, undermining reward credibility, interference with search operations, and slander and harassment.
The letter continues, “This is not a game, and you’ve run out of chances. Simply put, if you want to keep talking, you can take the stand in court; otherwise, refrain from this criminal behavior.”
The reader has 48 hours to comply or face an emergency injunction in federal court.
Lesniak recommends that social media users explicitly state that they share their opinions, not facts.
“But if that opinion leads to someone’s fiduciary or reputation loss, that can be defamation and an actionable item,” Lesniak said. ” We believe that this happened, my opinion is, I allegedly, this is what I have heard, those types of words then clue listeners into, okay this is not fact. This is someone’s opinion.”
But he encourages YouTubers and social media users to keep Sebastian’s name visible online.
“They keep this issue at the forefront and make people remind them that it happened and it’s not going away,” Lesniak explained.
But he told NewsNation affiliate WKRN that continued legal action will depend on the response from the letter recipients and what his clients ultimately decide.
“I am the predator’s predator,” Dog said. “So they better watch. This dog’s got rabies. They better watch what they do.”
“We are going to take every single one of these online troublemakers or bullies all the way to the woodshed, legally,” Dog concluded.
If you have information, you can call Chapman’s tip line at 833-835-5364, the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office at 615-451-3838, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND or TipsToTBI@tbi.tn.gov. You can also contact your local FBI office, the nearest American Embassy or Consulate, or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.
