Felony Computer Misuse for Reading Wife's Email

An Internet law designed to protect the stealing of trade secrets and identities is being used to levy a felony charge against a Michigan man after he logged onto his then-wife's Gmail account and found out she was cheating.

Leon Walker, 33, of Rochester Hills, Mich., is being charged with felony computer misuse, and faces up to five years in prison after logging into the email account of now ex-wife Clara Walker on a shared laptop using her password, the Detroit Free Press reports.

He is facing a Feb. 7 trial. Leon and Clara Walker's divorce was finalized earlier this month, the Free Press reports.

Clara, who was married twice previously, was having an affair with her second husband, as Walker found in her email, according to the Free Press. The second husband had been arrested earlier for beating her in front of her young son from her first husband.

Walker was worried about more domestic violence from husband No. 2, so he handed the e-mails over to the child's father, the Free Press reports. He promptly filed an emergency motion to obtain custody.

Leon Walker, a computer technician with Oakland County, was arrested in February 2009, after Clara Walker learned he had provided the emails to her first husband.

"I was doing what I had to do," Leon Walker told the Free Press in a recent interview. He has been out on bond since shortly after his arrest. "We're talking about putting a child in danger."

Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper defended her decision to charge Walker, calling him a skilled "hacker" who downloaded the material in "a contentious way."

Electronic Privacy expert Frederick Lane told the Free Press that the case hinges in a legal grey area, and the fact that the laptop was shared may help Walker's cause.

About 45 percent of divorce cases involve some snooping -- and gathering -- of email, Facebook and other online material, Lane said. But he added that those are generally used by the warring parties for civil reasons -- not for criminal prosecution, the Free Press reports.

original article here

Felony Computer Misuse for Reading Wife's Email

An Internet law designed to protect the stealing of trade secrets and identities is being used to levy a felony charge against a Michigan man after he logged onto his then-wife's Gmail account and found out she was cheating.

Leon Walker, 33, of Rochester Hills, Mich., is being charged with felony computer misuse, and faces up to five years in prison after logging into the email account of now ex-wife Clara Walker on a shared laptop using her password, the Detroit Free Press reports.

He is facing a Feb. 7 trial. Leon and Clara Walker's divorce was finalized earlier this month, the Free Press reports.

Clara, who was married twice previously, was having an affair with her second husband, as Walker found in her email, according to the Free Press. The second husband had been arrested earlier for beating her in front of her young son from her first husband.

Walker was worried about more domestic violence from husband No. 2, so he handed the e-mails over to the child's father, the Free Press reports. He promptly filed an emergency motion to obtain custody.

Leon Walker, a computer technician with Oakland County, was arrested in February 2009, after Clara Walker learned he had provided the emails to her first husband.

"I was doing what I had to do," Leon Walker told the Free Press in a recent interview. He has been out on bond since shortly after his arrest. "We're talking about putting a child in danger."

Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper defended her decision to charge Walker, calling him a skilled "hacker" who downloaded the material in "a contentious way."

Electronic Privacy expert Frederick Lane told the Free Press that the case hinges in a legal grey area, and the fact that the laptop was shared may help Walker's cause.

About 45 percent of divorce cases involve some snooping -- and gathering -- of email, Facebook and other online material, Lane said. But he added that those are generally used by the warring parties for civil reasons -- not for criminal prosecution, the Free Press reports.

original article here

Murdered After Finding Husband's Cheating on Facebook

By Liz Hull

A man strangled his new bride after she discovered he was having an affair, a court has heard.

Michael Roberts, 27, is then said to have concocted an elaborate charade to make it appear that Vicky, 25, his wife of five months, was still alive.

He sent text messages from her phone to her concerned family and friends, saying she had left him for another man.

Roberts even had a tearful dinner with her parents while her dead body lay in their two-bedroom apartment, it is alleged.

Police were called in to investigate, only for him to escape from under their noses. He slipped away when an officer began searching the garage in which he had dumped his wife's body in a duvet.

Roberts evaded capture for four days - staying in hotels under a false name - but then was spotted by a friend who alerted police.

Under questioning, he admitted killing Mrs Roberts, an accounts manager for a chemical company, but denied murder.

He claimed he had accidentally strangled her when a sex game went wrong.

Yesterday Roberts, who was described as devious and clever, went on trial for his wife's murder at Liverpool Crown Court.

David Steer, QC, prosecuting, told the jury that although Roberts and his wife, who had been together for less than three years, appeared to be the perfect couple the reality was different.

Roberts had cheated on his wife with two women before and after their wedding, in June last year and told friends he wanted a divorce.

He had a 13-month affair with Kerrie Hall, an administration boss at Phones4U, for whom Roberts was an assistant store manager.

She told police that Roberts liked rough sex and had twice tried to throttle her during intercourse, claiming it would make it more enjoyable.

Roberts had a second lover in Karen Wilson, who he met two months before his marriage and while still seeing Miss hall.

A month before she died - on November 29 last year - Mrs Roberts confronted her husband after becoming suspicious about his text messages and entries on Facebook.

He promised to be faithful but instead continued the relationship with Miss Wilson, telling her he had ended his marriage and moved in with his parents.

Phone records obtained by police, the court heard, revealed that the pair contacted each other more than 5,000 times.

On the night of Mrs Roberts's death the couple had dinner before returning to their £125,000 flat in Runcorn, Cheshire.

Roberts claimed they had sex, during which his wife asked him to tie the cord of a bath robe around her neck. He told police she went limp, fell on to her side and died.

Instead of dialing 999, Roberts, the court heard, embarked on an elaborate cover-up.

'What happened to Vicky was no accident during intercourse but a deliberate and determined strangulation with a ligature,' Mr Steer said.

'Because on previous occasions he had behaved in the way described by Kerrie Hall, he has decided to use that as part of his story ... and to pretend this was all a terrible accident.'

Within minutes of his wife's death Roberts called Miss Wilson and acted as if nothing had happened.

The couple spent the following day shopping and had sex in a hotel in Bangor, north Wales.

Roberts then started using his wife's phone to send texts to himself, her friends and parents, claiming she had walked out. he had dinner with his in-laws and joked with work colleagues that he couldn't have killed his wife because his car boot was too small to hold a body.

CCTV recovered from a supermarket and a DIY store showed Roberts buying bin bags, insulation sheets and duct tape, two days after the alleged murder.

He also got rid of his wife's clothes and bought silk sheets to prepare the former marital bedroom for his mistress.

After four days, Mrs Roberts's parents who were 'demented' with worry, became suspicious and reported their daughter missing.

Roberts fled the police and took a taxi to Asda in Liverpool, where he bought new clothes before checking himself into hotels in Chester, Nantwich and Wrexham over the next three days.

He threw his mobile phone into a canal and also sent a letter to Miss Wilson, telling her that he wanted to be with her 'and only her' for the rest of his life and that she was ' incredibly sexy with a stunning body'.

Mrs Roberts's handbag, which contained receipts of her husband's nights with Mrs Wilson, was discovered in the boot of his Toyota MR2, along with printouts of their Facebook conversations. Roberts denies murder. The trial continues.

original article here

Murdered After Finding Husband's Cheating on Facebook

By Liz Hull

A man strangled his new bride after she discovered he was having an affair, a court has heard.

Michael Roberts, 27, is then said to have concocted an elaborate charade to make it appear that Vicky, 25, his wife of five months, was still alive.

He sent text messages from her phone to her concerned family and friends, saying she had left him for another man.

Roberts even had a tearful dinner with her parents while her dead body lay in their two-bedroom apartment, it is alleged.

Police were called in to investigate, only for him to escape from under their noses. He slipped away when an officer began searching the garage in which he had dumped his wife's body in a duvet.

Roberts evaded capture for four days - staying in hotels under a false name - but then was spotted by a friend who alerted police.

Under questioning, he admitted killing Mrs Roberts, an accounts manager for a chemical company, but denied murder.

He claimed he had accidentally strangled her when a sex game went wrong.

Yesterday Roberts, who was described as devious and clever, went on trial for his wife's murder at Liverpool Crown Court.

David Steer, QC, prosecuting, told the jury that although Roberts and his wife, who had been together for less than three years, appeared to be the perfect couple the reality was different.

Roberts had cheated on his wife with two women before and after their wedding, in June last year and told friends he wanted a divorce.

He had a 13-month affair with Kerrie Hall, an administration boss at Phones4U, for whom Roberts was an assistant store manager.

She told police that Roberts liked rough sex and had twice tried to throttle her during intercourse, claiming it would make it more enjoyable.

Roberts had a second lover in Karen Wilson, who he met two months before his marriage and while still seeing Miss hall.

A month before she died - on November 29 last year - Mrs Roberts confronted her husband after becoming suspicious about his text messages and entries on Facebook.

He promised to be faithful but instead continued the relationship with Miss Wilson, telling her he had ended his marriage and moved in with his parents.

Phone records obtained by police, the court heard, revealed that the pair contacted each other more than 5,000 times.

On the night of Mrs Roberts's death the couple had dinner before returning to their £125,000 flat in Runcorn, Cheshire.

Roberts claimed they had sex, during which his wife asked him to tie the cord of a bath robe around her neck. He told police she went limp, fell on to her side and died.

Instead of dialing 999, Roberts, the court heard, embarked on an elaborate cover-up.

'What happened to Vicky was no accident during intercourse but a deliberate and determined strangulation with a ligature,' Mr Steer said.

'Because on previous occasions he had behaved in the way described by Kerrie Hall, he has decided to use that as part of his story ... and to pretend this was all a terrible accident.'

Within minutes of his wife's death Roberts called Miss Wilson and acted as if nothing had happened.

The couple spent the following day shopping and had sex in a hotel in Bangor, north Wales.

Roberts then started using his wife's phone to send texts to himself, her friends and parents, claiming she had walked out. he had dinner with his in-laws and joked with work colleagues that he couldn't have killed his wife because his car boot was too small to hold a body.

CCTV recovered from a supermarket and a DIY store showed Roberts buying bin bags, insulation sheets and duct tape, two days after the alleged murder.

He also got rid of his wife's clothes and bought silk sheets to prepare the former marital bedroom for his mistress.

After four days, Mrs Roberts's parents who were 'demented' with worry, became suspicious and reported their daughter missing.

Roberts fled the police and took a taxi to Asda in Liverpool, where he bought new clothes before checking himself into hotels in Chester, Nantwich and Wrexham over the next three days.

He threw his mobile phone into a canal and also sent a letter to Miss Wilson, telling her that he wanted to be with her 'and only her' for the rest of his life and that she was ' incredibly sexy with a stunning body'.

Mrs Roberts's handbag, which contained receipts of her husband's nights with Mrs Wilson, was discovered in the boot of his Toyota MR2, along with printouts of their Facebook conversations. Roberts denies murder. The trial continues.

original article here

WHY LISA NOWAK SNAPPED

What would cause a highly educated, seemingly successful person to snap?

Some are asking that question in the case of an astronaut accused of trying to kill another woman in a purported love triangle.

Wednesday on TODAY, psychiatrist and television personality Dr. Keith Ablow offered his perspective, saying astronaut Lisa Nowak may have underlying "unresolved issues" and as a result "lost perspective."

"It is very hard for people to understand," said Ablow, "but these are feelings that cut across all social barriers. They cut across how accomplished you are at work. When affairs of the heart are involved, people sometimes tap very primitive and primal unresolved issues in their psyches and those come to the fore."

Nowak, 43, an astronaut who flew aboard the space shuttle Discovery last year, returned home to Houston on Wednesday after posting $25,500 bail. She was charged a day earlier in Florida with attempted murder of the woman she believed was her romantic rival for a space shuttle pilot's affections. Nowak is also charged with attempted kidnapping and three other crimes.

According to police, Nowak, wearing diapers, drove 900 miles from Houston to Orlando to confront Colleen Shipman, who arrived in Orlando aboard a plane Monday. Nowak disguised herself in a wig and trenchcoat, approached Shipman's car and sprayed her with pepper spray, authorities said. Nowak had all the tools necessary — tape, a knife, a BB-gun, a steel mallet, garbage bags and other items — to kill the woman, police said.

Whether Nowak and Shipman really were competing for the affections of astronaut William Oefelein is irrelevant to the question of why Nowak did what she is accused of doing, Ablow said on TODAY. People who become lovesick are capable of doing extraordinarily reckless things that are out of character and have lingering consequences, he explained.

"I've testified in cases in which people become completely irrational about jealousies," Ablow said. "I had a man who was a Harvard dermatologist say, 'I think I killed my wife' — and, as strange as it sounds, to always have her love. He had kids and did it in front of them."

'A desperate woman'
Nowak, who recently separated from her husband of 19 years, has three children — a teenage son and twin 5-year-old girls.

"This is a question of degree and perspective," Ablow said. "And she's lost perspective here."

Nowak's younger sister Andrea Rose told PEOPLE magazine that Nowak also never quite recovered from losing three former classmates in the 2003 Columbia shuttle explosion. "We knew Lisa was under a lot of stress," said Rose, 41, a lawyer. "But there's no way of knowing how a particular person will react to stress. We love Lisa and we're worried about her well-being."

Nowak's attorney, Donald Lykkebak, urged the public and the media to keep the incident in perspective. Nobody was hurt seriously, and the charges, particularly the attempted murder count, are merely unproved allegations, said Lykkebak.

"What she did was spray her with pepper spray, no more," Lykkebak said. "What we have here is a desperate woman who wants to have a conversation with another woman.”

Retired astronaut, Jerry Linenger, told the Associated Press that NASA should review its psychological screening process. With the space agency talking about a 2½-year trip to Mars, it would be dangerous for someone to “snap like this” during the mission, he said.

“An astronaut is probably the most studied human being by the time you go through your testing, your training,” Linenger said. “I think there’s still a lot of unknowns out there.”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

(anyone who wants to know why people like Nowak snapped? On the right margin, down about 3/4 of the way, is a list of predators we have exposed. PLEASE read some of their stories.

While we do NOT condone what Nowak did, we understand the factors that caused her to do it.)

WHY LISA NOWAK SNAPPED

What would cause a highly educated, seemingly successful person to snap?

Some are asking that question in the case of an astronaut accused of trying to kill another woman in a purported love triangle.

Wednesday on TODAY, psychiatrist and television personality Dr. Keith Ablow offered his perspective, saying astronaut Lisa Nowak may have underlying "unresolved issues" and as a result "lost perspective."

"It is very hard for people to understand," said Ablow, "but these are feelings that cut across all social barriers. They cut across how accomplished you are at work. When affairs of the heart are involved, people sometimes tap very primitive and primal unresolved issues in their psyches and those come to the fore."

Nowak, 43, an astronaut who flew aboard the space shuttle Discovery last year, returned home to Houston on Wednesday after posting $25,500 bail. She was charged a day earlier in Florida with attempted murder of the woman she believed was her romantic rival for a space shuttle pilot's affections. Nowak is also charged with attempted kidnapping and three other crimes.

According to police, Nowak, wearing diapers, drove 900 miles from Houston to Orlando to confront Colleen Shipman, who arrived in Orlando aboard a plane Monday. Nowak disguised herself in a wig and trenchcoat, approached Shipman's car and sprayed her with pepper spray, authorities said. Nowak had all the tools necessary — tape, a knife, a BB-gun, a steel mallet, garbage bags and other items — to kill the woman, police said.

Whether Nowak and Shipman really were competing for the affections of astronaut William Oefelein is irrelevant to the question of why Nowak did what she is accused of doing, Ablow said on TODAY. People who become lovesick are capable of doing extraordinarily reckless things that are out of character and have lingering consequences, he explained.

"I've testified in cases in which people become completely irrational about jealousies," Ablow said. "I had a man who was a Harvard dermatologist say, 'I think I killed my wife' — and, as strange as it sounds, to always have her love. He had kids and did it in front of them."

'A desperate woman'
Nowak, who recently separated from her husband of 19 years, has three children — a teenage son and twin 5-year-old girls.

"This is a question of degree and perspective," Ablow said. "And she's lost perspective here."

Nowak's younger sister Andrea Rose told PEOPLE magazine that Nowak also never quite recovered from losing three former classmates in the 2003 Columbia shuttle explosion. "We knew Lisa was under a lot of stress," said Rose, 41, a lawyer. "But there's no way of knowing how a particular person will react to stress. We love Lisa and we're worried about her well-being."

Nowak's attorney, Donald Lykkebak, urged the public and the media to keep the incident in perspective. Nobody was hurt seriously, and the charges, particularly the attempted murder count, are merely unproved allegations, said Lykkebak.

"What she did was spray her with pepper spray, no more," Lykkebak said. "What we have here is a desperate woman who wants to have a conversation with another woman.”

Retired astronaut, Jerry Linenger, told the Associated Press that NASA should review its psychological screening process. With the space agency talking about a 2½-year trip to Mars, it would be dangerous for someone to “snap like this” during the mission, he said.

“An astronaut is probably the most studied human being by the time you go through your testing, your training,” Linenger said. “I think there’s still a lot of unknowns out there.”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

(anyone who wants to know why people like Nowak snapped? On the right margin, down about 3/4 of the way, is a list of predators we have exposed. PLEASE read some of their stories.

While we do NOT condone what Nowak did, we understand the factors that caused her to do it.)