Tennessee hacker of Sarah Palin's e-mail sentenced
Credit: Reuters (http://www.reuters.com)
A judge on Friday sentenced a college student to a year and a day in a halfway house for hacking into former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's e-mail account.
Judge Thomas Phillips of the U.S. District Court in Knoxville refused defense requests to allow David Kernell, who is being treated for depression, to avoid incarceration.
"Mental condition is not enough even when considering his age to justify variance" from federal sentencing guidelines, the judge said.
In September 2008, Kernell, then a 20-year-old student at the University of Tennessee, correctly guessed answers to security questions protecting Palin's Yahoo e-mail account. He changed her password and posted on the Internet screen shots of personal information he obtained, such as her telephone directory.
Palin testified at Kernell's April jury trial that the intrusion disrupted her campaign just two months before the presidential election and frightened her daughter Bristol, who also testified she received a barrage of calls to her cell phone.
At the time, Palin, Republican presidential nominee John McCain's running mate, was dealing with allegations she used her personal e-mail for public business as governor of Alaska.
Palin has since become a popular speaker and a favorite of the Tea Party who is considered a possible 2012 presidential candidate.
After hacking into Palin's account, Kernell, the son of a Democratic state legislator, reported in an Internet posting that he found "nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped."
Kernell's lawyer said the hacking was a prank, but the jury found him guilty of obstruction of justice, a felony, and unauthorized access of a computer, a misdemeanor. He was acquitted of a fraud charge, and jurors failed to reach a verdict on an identity theft charge. Prosecutors had sought an 18-month prison sentence, while Kernell's lawyer pleaded for probation.
The case is USA v. Kernell, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee, No. 08-CR-142. Wade Davies and Anne Passino of Ritchie, Dillard & Davies in Knoxville, Tennessee, represent Kernell. Representing the government are U.S. Attorney William Killian; Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gregory Weddle and Mark Krotoski; and Josh Goldfoot of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Department of Justice.
(Reporting by Robby O'Daniel of Reuters; Additional reporting by Terry Baynes of Reuters Legal)
Credit: Reuters (http://www.reuters.com)
Credit: Reuters (http://www.reuters.com)
A judge on Friday sentenced a college student to a year and a day in a halfway house for hacking into former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's e-mail account.
Judge Thomas Phillips of the U.S. District Court in Knoxville refused defense requests to allow David Kernell, who is being treated for depression, to avoid incarceration.
"Mental condition is not enough even when considering his age to justify variance" from federal sentencing guidelines, the judge said.
In September 2008, Kernell, then a 20-year-old student at the University of Tennessee, correctly guessed answers to security questions protecting Palin's Yahoo e-mail account. He changed her password and posted on the Internet screen shots of personal information he obtained, such as her telephone directory.
Palin testified at Kernell's April jury trial that the intrusion disrupted her campaign just two months before the presidential election and frightened her daughter Bristol, who also testified she received a barrage of calls to her cell phone.
At the time, Palin, Republican presidential nominee John McCain's running mate, was dealing with allegations she used her personal e-mail for public business as governor of Alaska.
Palin has since become a popular speaker and a favorite of the Tea Party who is considered a possible 2012 presidential candidate.
After hacking into Palin's account, Kernell, the son of a Democratic state legislator, reported in an Internet posting that he found "nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped."
Kernell's lawyer said the hacking was a prank, but the jury found him guilty of obstruction of justice, a felony, and unauthorized access of a computer, a misdemeanor. He was acquitted of a fraud charge, and jurors failed to reach a verdict on an identity theft charge. Prosecutors had sought an 18-month prison sentence, while Kernell's lawyer pleaded for probation.
The case is USA v. Kernell, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee, No. 08-CR-142. Wade Davies and Anne Passino of Ritchie, Dillard & Davies in Knoxville, Tennessee, represent Kernell. Representing the government are U.S. Attorney William Killian; Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gregory Weddle and Mark Krotoski; and Josh Goldfoot of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Department of Justice.
(Reporting by Robby O'Daniel of Reuters; Additional reporting by Terry Baynes of Reuters Legal)
Credit: Reuters (http://www.reuters.com)
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