Is it blackmail if you retract your demand?

[LeeHarveyBlotto]

here's how court goes:

OP--I'm suing because he didn't pay me for a service I provided
Judge: and what service was that?
OP: cheating on a school exam
Judge: case dismissed!

Putting aside the ethical issues for the moment, is this how it would/should go? Is cheating on a school test in any way illegal? Now assuming the cheater is a minor, there's no contract and the OP couldn't collect on that basis.

 

[Eekamouse]

That's what I'm posting here to find out

And you think we're going to tell you how to legally threaten him? Now we have two examples of just how dumb you are. The first was when you didn't get the money first before helping someone to cheat. The second is you thinking a legal advice board would help you threaten the guy to make him pay up.

 

[quincy]

I am located in Ohio.

Someone offered me money for helping him cheat on his exam in school. I accepted his offer and helped him, but now I think he's refusing to pay. I considered threatening to tell his instructor that he cheated if he doesn't pay (yes I know it sounds wrong, but the guy is refusing to pay). I know that's probably blackmail, but I want to know if it's still legally blackmail if I officially retract my demand for the money and just tell him that I am going to tell his instructor no matter what.

Of course I would still want him to pay, but is there any way I could get in legal trouble if I tell him that I no longer want the money? Again, sorry if this sounds wrong or inappropriate, I just want the money he owes me.

Here is the legal definition of blackmail, from Black's Law Dictionary: Unlawful demand of money or property under threat to do bodily harm, to injure property, to accuse of a crime, or to expose disgraceful defects. This crime is commonly included under extortion or criminal coercion statutes. See Model Penal Code §212.5.

Here is a link to Ohio's extortion statute: http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2905.11

Is it "unlawful" for you to demand money you are legitimately owed? No. Is it "unlawful" to expose or threaten to expose the known illegal or unethical acts of others? No.

But you agreed to commit an unethical (possibly illegal) act in exchange for money. What the consequences will be for either of you is something I can't tell you. It depends in large part on the exam in question and how you helped your friend cheat (e.g., did you steal a copy of the exam? did you sit in on the exam for him?).

Here is a link to information about complicity or accomplice liability: http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-law-basics/what-is-complicity-or-accomplice-liability.html

You deal with cheaters, you are bound to be cheated. What you do at this point is entirely up to you. I think you lose no matter what you decide to do - and I suppose that is some form of justice right there.

 

[Eekamouse]

Clap clap clap for Quincy's reply. I hate how my home computer doesn't let me use the like button.

 

[1j0e]

And you think we're going to tell you how to legally threaten him? Now we have two examples of just how dumb you are. The first was when you didn't get the money first before helping someone to cheat. The second is you thinking a legal advice board would help you threaten the guy to make him pay up.

lol calm down tough guy, who pissed in your cereal

I had no idea if anyone here would tell me how to threaten him, but it was worth a shot and I got a good chuckle out of this too.

I was always planning on threatening him as I described anyway, unless someone here happened to warn me that I could get in trouble

 

[quincy]

And you think we're going to tell you how to legally threaten him? ...

Thanks for the applause, Eekamouse.

Although many have said essentially the same thing in various and assorted ways, Carl Sagan wrote in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark: "There are naïve questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question."

I think it is safe to say that Carl Sagan and others who contend that there is no such thing as a dumb question have never read through some of the questions posed on this forum. That said, it sounds as if, with the responses provided here, that 1j0e has a better understanding of the world he has created for himself.

 

[1j0e]

Thanks for an actual reply Quincy, you win my upboat

 

[1j0e]

I think it is safe to say that Carl Sagan and others who contend that there is no such thing as a dumb question have never read through some of the questions posed on this forum.

Fortunately for me, I'm not concerned with whether or not my question is dumb. If people think that they're wasting their time reading or replying to me then I think you know what Carl Sagan would tell them to stop doing. In the meantime I'll ask a thousand stupid questions and let ten thousand people waste their own time if it gives me a slightly higher chance of staying out of legal trouble

 

[quincy]

Thanks for an actual reply Quincy, you win my upboat

You're welcome, 1j0e.

My advice to you for the future is that you don't "help" others cheat on exams.

And, as a note, I rarely find questions stupid if the person asking the question learns something from the answer.