Forgot about this one.
Posted on 04/30/2010 12:49:09 PM PDT by rhema
The 22-year-old man accused of hacking into the Yahoo! email account of Sarah Palin while she was the Republican candidate for vice president was found guilty of two of four counts: unlawful computer access and obstruction of justice, according to a report in the Knoxville News Sentinel. He was acquitted of the charge of wire fraud and a mistrial was declared on count one, identity theft.
David Kernell was a 20-year-old economics student at the University of Tennessee when he hacked his way past security questions to access Palin's personal email account in 2008. Kernell gained access by providing Palin's birth date and ZIP code to Yahoo's password retrieval system. At that time, she was the governor of Alaska and recently recruited as running mate in the presidential bid of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
The government will decide next week whether to retry the case, with sentencing to follow after that decision is made, according to @hsumerford reporting via Twitter from the scene. Kernell and his attorney had no comment for the press as they left the courtroom, he added.
A jury in Knoxville, Tenn. comprised of six men and six women, began hearing testimony last week in the case, including from Palin and her daughter Bristol, who both testified that the event disrupted their lives.
"It caused a huge disruption in the campaign," Palin told jurors during her 45 minutes of testimony last Friday.
The jury began its deliberations on Tuesday morning after receiving instructions from U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Phillips and continued for more than five hours before concluding for the day. The jurors continued discussion all day Wednesday and Thursday. By Thursday afternoon, the jurors were unanimous on their decision in three of the four charges, but were deadlocked on count one, the charge of identity theft.
The jurors' discussion seemed to be heating up on Thursday. In a note to the judge, the jurors said: "Some of us feel not all jurors are following the jury instruction."
When they could not come to a verdict on the charge of identity theft, the judge refused to accept a partial verdict and sent them back into the jury room to reach a decision on count one.
After another full day of deliberation on Friday, the jury acquitted Kernell of count two, wire fraud, but it remained deadlocked on count one, felony identity theft.
Kernell was charged with four felonies – felony identity theft, wire fraud, accessing Palin's email account without authorization and obstructing an FBI investigation. If convicted, he faced 50 years in prison.
Charges, possible sentence
Count one: identity theft
Maximum five years in prison
$250,000 fine
Three years supervised release
Count two: wire fraud
Maximum 20 years in prison
$250,000 fine
Five years supervised release
Count three: unlawful computer access
Maximum five years in prison
$250,000 fine
Three years supervised release
Lesser included misdemeanor offense on count three carries a maximum of one year in prison
Count four: obstruction of justice
Maximum 20 years in prison
$250,000 fine
Five years supervised release
Wade Davies, Kernell's attorney, argued that "what he did was closer to a prank than a crime." He added that Kernell didn't use the information he accessed or harass Palin's family. But prosecution lawyer Thomas Van Flein told the jury the hacking was "disruptive to [Palin's] ability to communicate with her staff."
Answering reporters' questions following her testimony last Friday, Palin said, "It's not right. It's not legal. It's not fair. It's not decent."
Davies argued that federal authorities trumped up charges because the high-profile Palin is the alleged victim. He urged jurors to penalize Kernell only for what he claimed was the more appropriate conviction: misdemeanor unauthorized computer access.
Kernell was present in court throughout the proceedings, but did not testify. He is the son of Democratic state Rep. Mike Kernell of Memphis, who has served in the state's House of Representatives for more than three decades.
Sentencing will follow.
Major to you & me, sure. 'Major' to a liberal piece of sh- college student? I'm not so sure.
It would probably never occur to this twerp to purchase a handgun. If he really needed one, he'd just disregard the law, as rules are for chumps & for controlling conservatives.
As a politician's kid he might be more disturbed about losing his voting rights. But I'm confident that he will get a midnight pardon from the outgoing Obama administration so that his full citizenship rights will be restored. These are the kinds of people that petition for pardons, and have the 'friends' to see that it gets granted.
far left kook on the jury and that’;s why it took so long
Thanks for the correction. The charges for which he was found ‘Not Guilty’ just SOUNDED like they carried more jail time. Appearances can be deceiving, I guess.
he’s a far left kook since when will that stop him form voting, and I bet he will do it more than once
is that a photo of Eric Holder or an old Billy Dee Williams malt liquor ad?
Billy Dee Willims never looked so bad.
Except in those Before and After ads...
Unleach the Lawyers!
Let the Civil Suits Begin!
How many members of the Palin family have standing?
And that is precisely what the jury should have found IMHO. Let's see what the "time" is now.....
He’ll probably get a spot somewhere within the regime.
good... Obambi minion —> a cellar dweller with dirty skivies
He has proven he has the skills....
How d’ya like me NOW, beyotch? :)
Martha Stewart got five months for what -— perjury?
I figure this kid will get about six months but that’s just my wild uneducated guess.
Forgot about this one.
He’s a punk alright.
No jail time and of course no coverage about his CONVICTION.
Don’t forget that this “innocent kid” has a Dad that is a Democrat hack. And that there was cr*p lately in the news about how influential Todd was as “first dude”. I say make an example of him and show leniency a few years down the road.
Absolutely he disrupted her family — or caused disruption. He sent strangers to Bristol’s door in the absence of her family.
Those are mighty heavy penalities when you add them altogether. But he should serve some jail time and a stiff fine and several years probation for what he did. It was interfering with an election too.
Title: Son of GOP representative Convicted
First sentence: "The son of long term Republican state Rep. Mike Kernell of Memphis, was convicted today of..."
I hear what you're saying, and I hope you're wrong about the pardon, but unfortunately, you're probably right.
I would tell you to keep in mind that federal probation is not state probation. I'll wager he'll get something like 3-5 years of supervised control. During that time, he won't be able to drink, and he'll be subject to random urinalysis for drugs. Also, because of the computer component to his crime, it would be standard for him to be forbidden from owning or using computers during his probationary period. If he violates probation, there's a reasonable chance he'll do the WHOLE package inside.
Lastly - assuming he doesn't get pardoned - he'll never be an attorney, or hold virtually any kind of professional license. Working for the government becomes MUCH more difficult, although not impossible. Finding gainful employment in a non-labor job as a convicted felon is problematic in today age of instant employee background checks.
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