Dallas News | myFOXdfw.comRealtor Sentenced for Harassing Former Employee Online

A Collin County woman’s Facebook account was hacked and her personal life was violated. And she was disgusted to learn the person harassing her was her former boss.

Jessica Smith worked as an administrative assistant for First Premier Realty in Allen. Parts of her duties were to make online postings for the company.

But she did not get along with her boss and quit after a few months.

That’s when her problems really began.

“I went home and logged on and it wouldn’t let me log in and told me it had the wrong password,” Smith said.

Smith said she managed to change her password and finally got into her account. Then she noticed some disturbing things. Her profile picture had been changed and offensive comments were sent to some of her friends.

“I started reading the comments and I was mortified at the offensive things that were being said to people that I care about. Family, friends, firefighters, everybody… my world, everybody that I deal with somebody from each group got something hateful sent,” she said.

After panicking a while, Smith shut down her account and called police. Detectives traced the online communications to James Patrick Delagarza, Jr., the owner of First Premier Realty.

“I never in a million years thought that number one he would go that far and number two he would be able to have access to my personal accounts when I don’t share my passwords or information with anybody,” Smith said.

On Thursday Delagarza pleaded guilty to online harassment and received a sentence of six years probation.

“I’m really glad he pleaded guilty and admitted to doing what he did,” Smith said.

She still has no idea exactly how Delagarza got her username and password. She’s created a new account and is very guarded with her information. She also has some advice for others.

“The minute you see something wrong, look into it. Don’t just dismiss it. If you can’t access your account, send a message to Facebook. And if you start seeing people get attacked that you love call the police,” she said.

As part of his probation, Delagarza cannot contact Smith.

He refused FOX 4’s requests for comment.