KYW-TV, the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia has lost not one but both of their 6 and 11 p.m. news anchors in the past 6 months. Now it seems that one, Larry Mendte, had hacked into the others’, Alycia Lane, email account hundreds of times, trying to dig up dirt on his co-anchor.
Larry Mendte logged on to Alycia Lane’s email over 500 times and gave reporters some of Alycia Lane’s private information. Larry Mendte might have acted out of jealousy because Lane was making $100,000 more than him. He was fired from the station when these allegations came to light.
Alycia lane was fired from KYW-TV in January after she was charged with assaulting a police officer. She was later cleared of those charges.
Larry Mendte was charged with a felony for intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization. If convicted, Mendte faces a mandatory six month sentence for his crime.
Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hJTfkKbkepLvlZpmZY5PUtwK5M2AD922H23OA
Alycia Lane was never cleared of the charges. She served a first time offenders probation. The case was shady from the start. Mendte clearly did wrong, but looking at a co-workers emails is something that is normally hand handled by a company’s HR. What was the federal interest in this case? That is what should concern all of us. The FBI raiding a citizens home over a workplace dispute. It is frightening.