A San Francisco beauty queen's mother has been sent to prison for 37 months after cyberstalking teenage boys so badly they suffered psychological damage, were forced to quit jobs or move houses.
Ramajana Hidic Demirovic was sentenced Tuesday for cyberstalking and conspiracy to commit cyberstalking in connection with a scheme to harass and intimidate victims, including teenagers who had romantic relationships with the defendant’s co-conspirator, announced U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds and FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert K. Tripp.
The defendant’s co-conspirator, named as her daughter Ayra Demirovic in court filings, cyberstalked some of the victims with her mother, usually under the pretense of “protecting” Ayra. Ayra is now an adult but was high-school age at the time of the offenses.
Court filings say the misconduct escalated and became more sophisticated over time. It began with an in-person verbal assault against a male victim. She did the same to a female friend who Ayra fell out with, though adding direct harassing text messages and calls.
An Instagram account appearing to belong to Ayra shows her as a Miss San Francisco's Outstanding Teen 2017 contestant, a teenage beauty pageant.
Demirovic, 47, of San Francisco at the time she committed the offenses and currently of Brentwood, pleaded guilty to the charges on Aug. 4, 2022.
According to her plea agreement, the mother admitted she sent hundreds of malicious, deceptive and abusive communications intended to sabotage the personal relationships, social reputation, academic life and work prospects of her intended victims.
In all, Demirovic pleaded guilty to seven counts of cyberstalking as well as an eighth count of conspiracy to commit cyberstalking. She acknowledged in her plea agreement that between 2016 and 2019 she and a co-conspirator attempted to cause and did cause substantial emotional distress to their victims.
The principal targets of the scheme were persons with whom her daughter had fallings-out with after relationships or friendships ended. In each case, after the relationship ended, Demirovic engaged in a campaign to punish the victims.
Accosted Boy at School
Demirovic’s first victim was a 14-year-old high school student who dated Demirovic’s co-conspirator for only a few days in February 2016. Demirovic went to the victim’s school, located him, accosted him and, in front of other students, threatened him. Demirovic also contacted the victim’s mother using text messages and falsely accused him of being violent against Demirovic’s co-conspirator.
A second victim was a close female friend of Demirovic’s daughter until the two teenagers had a falling-out. In response, Demirovic began sending harassing text messages to her and leaving threatening voicemail messages. Demirovic threatened to send fabricated incriminating evidence to the police and to arrange to have this victim disciplined by her school.
False Accusations
A third victim became Demirovic’s target after he briefly “dated” her daughter in 2016. Demirovic sent vicious text messages to this victim and threatened to seek a restraining order against him that would prejudice his college applications. She made false reports to his employer accusing the victim of being physically abusive, using drugs and having a problem with alcohol—leading the victim to quit his job. She contacted administrators at the victim’s school and repeated these false allegations. Demirovic also used Instagram spoof accounts that used the victim’s name and images of him.
Court filings show one victim's parent was so overwhelmed that he had to relinquish a job he loved and move his family from their longtime home in California.
False Social Media Impersonation
Demirovic acknowledged in her plea agreement that her tactics escalated throughout the rest of 2016 and 2017; by May 2018, Demirovic and her co-conspirator began a 17-month course of conduct that was intended to humiliate and destroy the social relationships of a fourth victim.
This time, Demirovic created and used social media accounts—some that impersonated the victim and others that used pseudonyms—to systematically transmit hundreds of communications and postings about the victim.
Messages were sent to the victim, his family, friends, school officials and strangers.
For example, Demirovic created social media postings suggesting, among other things, that the victim was high on drugs, that he was emotionally and psychologically abusive, and that he was engaged in online bullying and anonymous messaging.
Demirovic also submitted a complaint about the victim to Title IX officers at his university, falsely alleging he had "harassed and stalked" girls. Demirovic’s harassing conduct continued even after a judicial officer issued a temporary restraining order directing Demirovic to refrain from harassing the victim and his family.
Sentencing
The sentence was handed down by the Hon. Vince Chhabria, U.S. district judge, after the defendant admitted she was guilty of the federal criminal charges.
On March 10, 2022, a federal grand jury issued a superseding indictment charging Demirovic with seven counts of cyberstalking, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2261A(2), and one count of conspiracy to commit cyberstalking, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. Pursuant to her plea agreement, Demirovic pleaded guilty to all counts.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Chhabria ordered Demirovic to serve a three-year term of supervised release to begin after her prison term. He ordered the defendant to surrender on March 10, 2023, to begin serving her prison term and scheduled a hearing for Feb. 15, 2023, to determine issues regarding restitution.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph Tartakovsky and Lauren Harding are prosecuting the case with assistance from Lance Libatique. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI.