Clicking the “like” button on a Facebook photo usually doesn’t result in a one-way ticket to jail. Apparently that’s what cost Paul Maida Jr. his freedom, reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The 31-year-old Boca Raton man had been on house arrest, charged with DUI manslaughter and other crimes in the 2014 death of a bicyclist. This month, Maida allegedly “liked” a photo on the Facebook page of key prosecution witness and former girlfriend Bianca Fichtel.
Prosecutor Laura Laurie then argued for Maida’s $76,000 bond to be revoked, accusing him of violating a court order to avoid any contact, direct or indirect, with Fichtel. On Wednesday, Circuit Judge Krista Marx cited the Facebook foul as the reason for yanking the bond and ordering Maida to remain in jail. Last year, investigators obtained emails between Fichtel and Maida. “There are hundreds of back-and-forth conversations between he and Fichtel about the crash, and more specifically that he was driving and should be charged and not Fichtel,” an investigator wrote in Maida’s arrest report.