Frannie Block

Reporter for @thefp. Send tips to [email protected], DM for signal

[Frannie Block @FrannieBlock]

The booming rehab industry in southern Ohio is now rife with exploitation, abuse, and fraud, local officials told me.

People being forced to live in rat-infested homes that are falling apart. Rehab businesses are charging Medicaid for services like "decorating Christmas trees" and "playing cornhole."

And the bill is being footed by taxpayers.

More in @TheFP
https://t.co/506WSF94CD

[The Free Press @TheFP]

Portsmouth, Ohio, used to be America’s pill mill capital. Now, it’s been taken over by addicts who are looking to get clean but end up falling into a system of chronic abuse, neglect, and fraud.

@FrannieBlock spent months talking to locals, politicians, and recovering addicts to get to the bottom of it.

Read her full report here: https://t.co/ulIyuLr1Js

[Oliver Wiseman @ollywiseman]

What happens when a town becomes 'the drug rehab capital of the world'?

A must-read @FrannieBlock story.

https://t.co/kfOEp511Mu

[Frannie Block @FrannieBlock]

NEW: My reporting on the 'rehab capital of America' in @TheFP

Recovery centers are intended to fill an essential need for a heavily drug-addicted community, still struggling decades after the height of the opioid crisis. But some wonder whether their invasion of Scioto County - a small, rural county with few jobs and little industry - is the next exploitation of Appalachia.

[Frannie Block @FrannieBlock]

Plus me, @SulkinMaya, @Olivia_Reingold, @river_is_nice, @LLBiggers, @rupasubramanya and SO MUCH MORE!

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[The Free Press @TheFP]

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Subscribe now to read them all, at 20 percent off for a limited time.

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[Frannie Block @FrannieBlock]

Ever wanted to give The Free Press a shot but didn't want to pay full price? NOW is your chance!

A 1-year subscription is now 20% for a limited time only!

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[Bryan Llenas @BryanLlenas]

New: "I will find you." Cornell Chi Phi Fraternity graduates who left campus before the alleged 2024 Jane Doe rape are getting death threats and doxxed after online sleuths wrongly tied them to the case.

In a letter sent to Cornell, from an attorney representing the seven grads, he's asking the university to set the record straight that they were not in the crude fraternity group chat associated with Jane Doe.

"Most of them have had their employers and higher education institutions take adverse actions against them, including being placed on leave."

[Frannie Block @FrannieBlock]

"Doe spent Wednesday taping up paper to obscure the windows of her parents’ home out of fear that a gunman could attack her, and reeling from a swatting episode that he said prompted police to swarm their home Tuesday night with weapons drawn."

https://t.co/ZCB653clXo

[Frannie Block @FrannieBlock]

Link to the piece (with a coupon code for non-subscribers): https://t.co/gcEIl16wMf

[Frannie Block @FrannieBlock]

Another tidbit in my piece on Cornell 7 online doxxing -- Jeremy Saland, the lawyer representing one of the accused men, sent a letter to the judge in the case stating his client “does not object” to Doe maintaining her anonymity throughout the case.

“I can adamantly, utterly, and fully disagree with her description as it relates to my client,” Saland told me & @MadeleineELong , “but that does not mean she should be outed and doxxed.”

Doe's lawyer said she has been subject to online harassment and doxxing from those pressuring her to try to drop the lawsuit. @TheFP

[Frannie Block @FrannieBlock]

NEW: It's not just the Cornell 7 & Jane Doe being doxxed online.

Just being a member of the Chi Phi fraternity — doesn't matter what school — can make you a target of the internet mob. More w/ @MadeleineELong in @TheFP https://t.co/kb71cIZjpt

[Madeleine Long @MadeleineELong]

After a lawsuit alleged seven Cornell Chi Phi members gang-raped a student, @FrannieBlock and I reported on the people swept up in the backlash who had nothing to do with it. Read our piece in @TheFP on what happens when the mob declares you guilty. https://t.co/RjxkNESCe6

[Frannie Block @FrannieBlock]

Here's his TikTok showing some of the hate messages he's received: https://t.co/YyhqPNN0pB

[Frannie Block @FrannieBlock]

Another person has come forward to say they have been misidentified as a member of the "Cornell 7."

Winston Lee, a 2020 Cornell graduate, said he has been getting "a lot of angry messages" from people who have mistaken him as one of the men named in Jane Doe's civil lawsuit.

[Frannie Block @FrannieBlock]

The mistakenly identified Matthew Ingalls was served with the lawsuit on Saturday. He is an active duty marine and he never attended Cornell University.

A spokesperson for his army pleaded that “the harassment of Sergeant Ingalls and his close family cease immediately while civil authorities continue to investigate this matter.”

[Frannie Block @FrannieBlock]

The Cornell 7 lawsuit served the wrong guy. Now, his family has faced harassment and death threats from the internet mob.

“My family’s been terrorized, threatened, and harassed,” Victoria Ingalls, the mother of the mistakenly identified Matthew Ingalls, told me. "We just really want to be left alone.” @TheFP

https://t.co/i80L0QGRgb

[Oliver Wiseman @ollywiseman]

Insane @FrannieBlock exclusive in @TheFP. It's on a man erroneously accused of being among the 'Cornell 7' -- and being hounded by the online mob.

https://t.co/a62QSbbCGF

[Oliver Wiseman @ollywiseman]

Read it here! https://t.co/oni52sKe5i

[Benjamin Ryan @benryanwriter]

EXCLUSIVE: The Cornell 7 Lawsuit Served the Wrong Person. Now He’s the Target of an Internet Mob.

Mom of the mistakenly identified Matthew Ingalls begs vigilantes to leave them alone. ‘My family’s been terrorized, threatened, and harassed.’
@FrannieBlock reports for @TheFP

At 8 p.m. on Saturday night, Victoria Ingalls heard a banging sound at her front door.

There was a man standing outside her house in upstate New York. “Is Matthew Ingalls your son?” he asked.

Victoria’s son is an active duty sergeant in the Marine Corps. “My heart went in my throat,” she told me. She assumed she was about to hear the news that every military family dreads.
Instead, the man handed her an envelope with a 101-page lawsuit inside, accusing her son of being among seven Cornell university students who allegedly raped and sexually abused a female student, identified as Jane Doe, over the course of seven hours at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024.

But Victoria’s son, 23, never attended Cornell. The court, the family soon figured out, had served the wrong Matthew Ingalls and had added the Ingalls’ home address to the official docket.

Online vigilantes targeting the alleged perpetrators of the alleged gang rape didn’t know that. They began searching Matthew Ingalls’ name as soon as the lawsuit was filed, and when they found details about Sergeant Ingalls and his family, they started posting the family’s details, including their phone numbers, on the internet.

In one post on X, an individual posted her son’s address with the caption: “This is definitely NOT Matthew Ingalls’ new phone number and address!. . . . Posting this for public awareness so people know to NOT reach out.” In another post, Victoria said she came across posts with her son’s name on them, with pictures of woodchippers and captions like “we can’t get caught if they can’t find bodies.”

Victoria’s daughter, 26, received a text message with a photo of the Cornell student Matthew Ingalls and a screenshot of a Google Earth image of her brother’s house. Her mother said she had no idea what it meant at the time, but she now understands it to be a clear threat. Then, Victoria said, the texts became more extreme: “Do the world a favor and go kill yourself,” read one. “Get fucked in the ass to death bitch” and “Kill yourself,” read others.

“My family’s been terrorized, threatened, and harassed,” Victoria told me. “I am just amazed at the way people behave. I can’t believe that people will just look someone up on the internet, take a phone number, and start texting someone or calling someone and saying the vile things they’re saying. You don’t even know if you have the right person. You’re creating more victims.”

[Frannie Block @FrannieBlock]

SCOOP: The New York Court in the Jane Doe Cornell 7 Lawsuit served the lawsuit to the wrong "Matthew Ingalls." His family tells @TheFP they are being threatened and harassed by an online mob.
https://t.co/4yvXQU7Icl