Aug 22, 2008 11:51 pm US/Eastern
Mendte: 'I Apologize To Alycia Lane'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
Former CBS 3 anchor Larry Mendte entered a guilty plea in
Federal Court Friday after being charged with a felony count of intentionally
accessing the private e-mail accounts of former co-anchor Alycia Lane hundreds of times.
Mendte, 51, his attorney Michael Schwartz, his wife and other family members,
arrived at the courthouse at 6th and Market Streets at about 9 a.m. for his
arraignment before the Honorable Mary A. McLaughlin.
Mendte's court appearance came one month after the U.S. Attorney's Office announced
he had been charged with intentionally accessing a protected computer without
authorization. Between January 1, 2008 and May 28, 2008 Mendte allegedly accessed
Lane's private e-mail accounts 537 times, but the tampering began as early as
March 2006.
In court, Mendte admitted in August 2006 he purchased a keystroke logger,
hardware that can be used to obtain a password to another person's computer
accounts.
The U.S. Attorney's Office says he logged on from his Chestnut Hill home, his
vacation home, KYW and another location and then leaked information, 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, to a reporter at the
Philadelphia Daily News.
Friday's hearing also revealed Mendte sent an anonymous letter to prosecutors
in New York concerning a criminal case against
Lane, who was arrested in December 2007 during an altercation with New York City police
officers. The letter was reportedly an attempt to sabotage the disposition of
the criminal case that Lane's New
York criminal attorney was negotiating with
prosecutors.
While the unlawful access of emails charge carries a maximum penalty of up to
five years in prison, the U.S. Attorney says under current sentencing
guidelines, Mendte is more likely to be sentenced to zero to six months.
Sentencing has been scheduled for November 24 and the government says they are
making no recommendations.
Mendte, who is married to Fox 29 news anchor Dawn Stensland, was released from
his contract in June following an independent investigation by CBS.
Although Mendte declined comment immediately after the hearing, while reading a
prepared statement to news media Friday evening he said, "I apologize to Alycia Lane for
what I did."
Mendte claimed, "The whole episode started five years ago when Alycia Lane came to
Philadelphia.
Almost immediately, Dawn heard rumors that Alycia and I were a little too close
and she should watch out. The rumors were true. Alycia and I had a flirtatious,
unprofessional, and improper relationship."
Mendte said after being confronted by his wife, "the relationship that was
once close quickly turned into a personal feud."
Mendte went on to say that as a result of his falling out with Lane, he alleges
she enlisted station management to undermine his career.
Lane's attorney Paul Rosen was quick to respond and discredit Mendte's
allegations:
"I cannot believe that a man who just plead
guilty to accessing her
emails over 7,000 times between March 2006 and
the day that he
was removed from KYW, 547 of them after she had
already left the
station, stands up today and tries to give some
sort of an excuse for
that conduct. There is nothing he can say that
will explain or excuse
the criminal conduct he admitted to today, which included
sending an
unsigned letter to the D.A. in New York, trying to make
sure that the
felony charges that were going to be dismissed against her
did not
place, that so she could go to jail even though she was
innocent. This
is a man who is sick. This is a man who is obsessed with
taking this
woman down in both a public and a private life. And for
him to stand up
there today and try to excuse that because he had I think
his words
were "A flirtatious relationship," with Alycia
Lane that his wife found
out about, to use that as an excuse is
absolutely absurd. More
importantly, there has never been an affair. There has
never been any
type of conduct in which she wouldn't be proud to stand
here and talk
about. I can tell you point blank that if he in any way
goes forward with
this, that in addition to being sued for the invasion of
privacy, I will go
after him for defamation the size of which he has
never seen before."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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