CWCVille Guardian
- Christine Chandler's lawyer urged the figure's followers not to believe everything they read online.
- He added, "the criminal justice system is a poor vehicle to help people with mental health issues."
- Known online as Chris Chan, she was arrested on Sunday on an incest charge.
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The lawyer representing Christine Weston Chandler, known online as Chris Chan, criticized Virginia's "critical shortage" of mental health facilities and said that mental health issues have played a role in Chandler's complicated online history.
"Ms. Chandler's frequent and sometimes over the top presence on the internet is partly a product of mental health issues causing misguided attention seeking and often provocative engagement with others," David Heilberg said in a statement provided to Insider on Friday.
Chandler, a popular online figure for over a decade, has been charged with a single count of incest after a leaked audio recording alleged she had sex with her 79-year-old mother.
Chandler is known for creating the comic character "Sonichu," a cross between Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as being the target of trolling campaigns online since 2007. Chandler obsessives then spent years documenting her online history on a forum and Wiki page called CWCiki.
Heilberg referenced the harassment faced by Chandler, who has said she has an autism spectrum disorder, and warned followers against blindly believing information about Chandler shared to online forums.
"Under ordinary circumstances, people should not believe everything they learn on the internet," the statement said. "Everything you find there should always be filtered by skepticism that is not pursued enough. This applies even more to somebody who is legally disabled with mental health issues."
Heilberg also suggested that online trolls who document Chandler's life have reached out to him for information on the case and said that "legitimate inquiries from journalists, supporters and nuisance trollers will be handled the same way."
The lawyer added that "the criminal justice system is a poor vehicle to help people with mental health issues" and said that there is a great deal of "misinformation" circulating online about Chandler.
"There are few people with actual personal knowledge about what happened," Heidelberg said in his statement. "Just because you heard or read something does not make it true."
Heilberg asked those with "reliable information or evidence" to contact the Greene County Sheriff's Office.
Chandler is currently being held in a Virginia jail without bond and her next court date is September 16.
Read more from Insider's Digital Culture desk.