Mendte may face jail time July 21, 2008
Posted by Chris Stover in Journalism, Philadelphia.Tags: Alycia Lane, CBS3, Crime, Larry Mendte
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It’s so big, even CNN picked it up.
Fired CBS3 anchor Larry Mendte has been charged with one felony count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without autorization and thereby obtaining information in furtherance of a tortious act.
In other words, he allegedly snooped in Alycia Lane’s e-mail accounts (Yahoo! and .mac) and divulged private information — especially privileged communication between her and her lawyer — to an unnamed Philadelphia Daily News reporter (although, one…er, many names are swirling).
Regardless, that DN reporter won’t get charged. Only Mendte will.
A source says that Mendte is expected to plead guilty at his arraignment in the coming weeks. Snooping can get him zero to six months in prison, though according to a philly.com poll, most think he’ll just get a “slap on the wrist.”
The Information given by the district court in United States of America v. Lawrence Mendte lists every time Mendte accessed Lane’s e-mail account since Jan. 1, 2008. It lists from where he accessed it — usually from KYW, his Chestnut Hill home or his “vacation residence” — multiple times per day.
Since Jan. 1, he’s accessed it about 537 times until May 28, when his computers were confiscated.
The information (linked below) really is an entertaining read and gives those unfamiliar with the case (I know, laughable) can get caught up, stemming from Alycia Lane’s initial arrest in December 2007. Fun stuff, right?
As of 5:50 p.m. Monday, all the major stations in Philly except 6ABC have reported it. NBC10′s All That and More dedicated its call-in topic to it: “Is snooping e-mail the same as snooping snail mail.” They’re probably just trying to cover up their own anchor troubles.
Check out the full court information here!
I just read that report. Saw your blog link on cnn. Can’t believe someone would do that. Also can’t believe a news anchor makes $700,000 a year?!
Haha… To be fair, Larry did a lot at the station, from writing and producing his own stories to doing community outreach. He did earn his keep around there.
actually, per cnn, the $700,000 was quoted as what Lane was making. Was she doing other stuff, too? just had no idea that was a typical salary for a newscaster. i guess they are citing that figure as a motive (jealousy).
Arguably, Larry did more than Alycia for the station, bringing in awards and getting active in the community (I’d bet the Alex’s Lemonade Stand phone bank was his brainchild). As a former intern, I probably shouldn’t comment more. But Mendte’s snooping 7,000 to 8,000 times in two years into Lane’s e-mail account really puts things in perspective.
If he was snooping e-mails over 100x a month imagine how many times he was visiting porn sites.
Yikes!
[...] fine, probation and some community service — the six-month jail sentence is unlikely — for hacking into Alycia Lane’s e-mail account. But this whole thing is actually nearing an end (or, at least, so we [...]