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Tag: Jailed

  • Paris Hilton Hacker Busted Yet Again

    Paris Hilton Hacker Busted Yet Again

    It’s been ten years since the Paris Hilton hacker scandal and apparently one of the culprits responsible never learned his lesson.

    Cameron Lacroix of New Bedford, Mass. just pled guilty to two counts of computer intrusion and one count of access device fraud.

    Lacroix went on a major hacking spree that began in 2011, during which time he targeted a staggering amount of victims.

    Over a two year period, Lacroix targeted not one, but several police departments.

    The brazen hacker gained access to various sensitive documents such as arrest warrants, intelligence reports, and sex offender profiles.

    Another major victim of Lacroix was the Bristol Community College. Prosecutors say the hacker breached the school’s several times between September 2012 and December 2013.

    His purpose? To improve his grades. Clearly Lacroix took Ferris Bueller’s Day Off waaaay too literally.

    Topping it all off, Lacroix stole the payment card data of at least 14,000 different people.

    In order to avoid major jail time for his crimes, Lacroix made a plea agreement. It’s an agreement that is quite generous considering his audacious crimes.

    The plea deal will send Lacroix to a federal prison where he will serve a four year sentence. After his release from jail, Lacroix will be under three years of supervision.

    This punishment comes a decade after Lacroix gained notoriety for stealing and leaking nudes that Paris Hilton had on her phone.

    No doubt the time spent in jail will force this hacker to face life without access to computers, which might be punishment enough.

    If not, would it be too much to ask that Lacroix’s access to any and all forms of computer technology be taken away indefinitely?

    After all, if Lacroix didn’t learn anything from repeatedly being busted, it may be too much to expect he’ll give up his hacking ways.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • NYC Settles Suit With Wrongly Jailed Man for $6.4 Million

    It happens every day–people arrested for crimes they did not commit–and the system lets them down. The statistics are staggering on the number of wrongly imprisoned inmates. Statistics show that in the U.S. alone, over 10,000 people each year are wrongly imprisoned.

    Truthfully, many want to believe that the goal of the justice system is to provide a fair trial, at least in the U.S., and to allow the system to judge right from wrong. But the legal system has failed many people. Whether evidence was concealed, or a person was framed, or even arrested by corrupted law enforcement, jailing someone who is innocent happens all too often.

    What is most disturbing is when someone is wrongly imprisoned and spends years in prison. The appeals and court system sometimes goes awry, leaving innocent people to basically ‘rot in prison’.

    It happened to David Ranta – a man who was framed by a rogue detective and served 23 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

    That man has sued the City of New York for this indiscretion and will receive a $6.4 million settlement that came before a civil rights lawsuit was even filed, lawyers involved in the case said on Thursday.

    Ranta and his attorney filed a $150 million claim that was settled by the city comptroller’s office without ever involving the city’s legal department. The lawyers involved in the negotiations described it as a “groundbreaking” decision that acknowledged the overwhelming guilt on the part of the city.

    The City’s quick acceptance of liability in the high-profile conviction is also extremely important, because a series of wrongful conviction claims are expected to follow, by men who were sent to prison due to the unfair and illegal work of the detective, Louis Scarcella. He has been accused of inventing confessions, coercing witnesses, and recycling informers.

    “While no amount of money could ever compensate David for the 23 years that were taken away from him, this settlement allows him the stability to continue to put his life back together,” Mr. Ranta’s lawyer, Pierre Sussman, said. “We are now focusing our efforts on pursuing an unjust conviction claim with the State of New York.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Buckingham Palace Knife Man/Protester Jailed

    Last October, a man wielding a knife tried to get onto the Buckingham Palace grounds. That man, 44-year-old David Belmar was trying to get to the Queen and discuss his recently discontinued state welfare.

    Belmar had a six-inch knife and protested about his Incapacity Benefit being stopped in front of Buckingham Palace. He leaped over a vehicle barrier and was swiftly brought down when armed police officers rugby tackled him to the ground.

    On Wednesday Belmar was jailed for 16 months for his actions in October.

    His lawyer, Louise Culleton told Southwark Crown Court in central London, “This was a question of Mr. Belmar being upset at that decision to stop his Incapacity Benefit. He had become increasingly frustrated and desperate. He did not know how to address that problem or perhaps was not thinking clearly as to how to address that by the formal routes and therefore wanted to draw publicity to what had happened to him.”

    Culleton added that her client, Mr. Belmar, said that he was “most remorseful” for his actions and that he acted “foolishly.”

    In 2002 Belmar was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and had been on regular anti-psychotics since then, but Judge Michael Gledhill QC said Belmar’s condition had “absolutely nothing to do” with his actions on October 14, 2013. He added that since 2002 Belmar had been in a “stable medical state.”

    Prosecutor Peter Zinner said police noticed Belmar when he was “pacing up and down” behind a crowd of tourists. “Suddenly without any warning, the defendant ran through the crowd towards the gate and effectively hurdled the vehicle blocker into the Palace grounds. Although the police officers were alarmed by what was perceived to be a determined effort by the defendant to enter the Palace grounds it seemed that the officers reacted professionally and coolly, assessed the risk to themselves and other parties and managed to restrain the defendant and arrest him without the need to deploy firearms,” said Zinner.

    The judge told Belmar, “I understand you believe you were being treated unfairly and that you were not being listened to and say you did not know what to do. Well, there are countless other people in exactly the same position following the relatively recent changes to the country’s benefit system. But they don’t all arm themselves with knives and go to Buckingham Palace intending to trespass within the grounds or enter the Palace themselves. That is why what you did could be described as a stunt.”

    Judge Gledhill also added, “I am satisfied of course that you were suffering from a mental illness but that had absolutely nothing to do with these offences. You were determined to make a protest, you were determined to attract publicity to the grievance that you felt. You did everything to make sure the world would know what you had done.”

    Although Belmar’s Incapacity Benefits were stopping, he was told he could seek employment and Job Seekers Allowance.

    Image via YouTube.