Jul 22, 2008 5:04 am US/Eastern
U.S. Attorney Formally Charges Larry Mendte
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia announced Monday that it has charged former CBS 3 anchor Larry Mendte with a felony count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization. The government's case against Mendte, 51, is set out in an
"Information" – the formal charging document. The Information charges Mendte with one count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization and thereby obtaining information in furtherance of a tortious act.
The Information says Mendte accessed the private e-mail accounts of former co-anchor Alycia Lane hundreds of times from from his Chestnut Hill home, his vacation home, KYW and another location and leaked information to a newspaper reporter.
"This case is no different than someone stealing your locked brief case with confidential, attorney client information, prying it open and helping themselves to the content," said acting United States Attorney Laurie Magid.
The Information states that the computer tampering began as early as March 2006 and continued until about May 28, 2008. The investigation found that defendant Lawrence Mendte gained access to private e-mail accounts of Alycia Lane and read her e-mail messages. According to the Information, Mendte's actions were "without authorization, and intentionally exceeded authorized access to computers at KYW."
According to the U.S. Attorney's office, the federal investigation found that between January 1, 2008 and May 28, 2008 the defendant engaged in a systematic pattern of intrusion of not a dozen incidents, not a hundred incidents, but logged into Ms. Lane's personal accounts 537 times.
According to the federal documents, Mendte accessed private communications between the victim and others, including attorney-client privileged information relating to both criminal litigation in which Lane was involved in New York and civil litigation Lane brought against KYW in Philadelphia. The U.S. Attorney's Office alleges that information was passed on to a reporter at the Philadelphia Daily News.
"The defendant accessed the e-mails, downloaded them and as the information alleges, he repeatedly leaked them to a newspaper reporter. Among the e-mails, he viewed and forwarded were numerous attorney client communications. We allege that the defendant leaked that information in an attempt to undermine his former colleague's ongoing legal cases," Magid said.
Mendte was released from his contract in June following an independent investigation by CBS.
Following the formal charge, Mendte's attorney, Michael Schwartz issued the following statement:
"The information filed today should not come as a surprise to anyone as we continually have said from day one Larry has been cooperating fully with the investigators. He continues to cooperate and will accept full responsibility for his actions."
Mendte is expected to surrender for arraignment in the coming weeks. The U.S. Attorney says that while the crime carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison, under current sentencing guidelines Mendte is more likely to be to be sentenced to zero to six months.
VIEW: Complete Document - Information (pdf file)
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