Can anything be done about Facebook slander?

Asked by ItalianPrincess1217 (11979) October 30th, 2011 from iPhone

At this point in my life I shouldn’t have to be dealing with such ridiculous drama. But I am. Unfortunately my s/o’s family has no part of our lives or our new baby’s life. We are going to keep it that way for many reasons. We keep to ourselves and mind our business. I was told by a mutual friend to check out a post on his sister’s Facebook, so I did. We aren’t friends but her wall was public. To my surprise, there was a very long post all about me. In this post she made horrible statements about me, my baby, and her brother that were completely untrue. She wrote my full name on this post and went on to tell the Facebook world that I was going to get beat up, that I’m disgusting, ugly, I smell, and our son isn’t her brother’s son. Apparently I also have lots of STD’s. I know what you’re probably thinking. Ignore her. She’s clearly immature and bored. But this is honestly starting to consume my life. All we want is to be happy and left alone. We have an event in 2 weeks that I’m actually afraid to go to because his sister’s live very close by and if they find out the location it’s likely they’d show up and start trouble. I should not have to be concerned about my safety! Yes, all the awful remarks about me being ugly and diseased hurt my feelings but the threats aren’t as easy to forget. My question is, can anything be done? For a very long time I have ignored the problems they have caused us over the past few months but now my full name is on Facebook with a lot of false statements and threats. Isn’t this considered slander? Or harassment? How can I make this end? Police? Court? Please help.