Facebook dispute sparks Wheaton stabbing

Consider it a modern version of the Hatfields versus McCoys, courtesy of Facebook.

A Wheaton woman and her teenage daughter are charged with attacking another local mom and daughter with steak knives in a dispute fueled by disparaging comments posted on the popular social networking site.

Judith E. Scott-Booker, 41, has spent more than two weeks locked in the DuPage County jail, charged with felony aggravated battery. A judge last week declined to lower the woman's $75,000 bond.

Her daughter, Brianna Smith, 18, is accused of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery, both misdemeanors. She posted $100 cash bail, and is due in court Oct. 13.

At 11:21 p.m. Sept. 3, police rushed to a cul-de-sac on the 1600 block of Groton Court in Wheaton. Scott-Booker is accused of stabbing a woman nearly a half dozen times, including once in the back on her neck near a major artery.

Brianna Smith is charged with repeatedly punching and hitting the woman's daughter, as well as placing a knife against the teen's wrist. The daughter was not stabbed.

She said the dispute began after another girl called Brianna Smith's newborn baby daughter "ugly" in a Facebook post. Smith accused the daughter of being behind the critical post. The teens' mothers became involved, and the victim said she invited the defendants over to her townhouse that night to check the daughter's laptop to prove her innocence.

Instead of ending the dispute, the victim said it escalated when Brianna Smith became physically violent. The victim said she ordered the mother and daughter out of her home, but 15 minutes later, Scott-Booker is accused of attacking the other mother as she walked outside toward her car. The two daughters also became involved.

"I didn't even know I had been stabbed until I was back inside my house. There was blood everywhere," the victim said Monday.

The families both live in the Briarcliff townhouse subdivision but knew each other for years after the two girls became friends in the fourth grade in Carol Stream. The victim said she moved into the Wheaton cul-de-sac about six years ago, while Scott-Booker moved there just two days before the stabbing.

"I could have died. I keep playing it back in my head. This is someone who has followed me around and for years tried to befriend me," the victim said. "I still don't understand why she did this. She's toxic."

Brianna Smith could not be reached Monday for comment.

Scott-Booker is due back in court Sept. 27. She needs $7,500 to be released from jail.