Judge Nixes Guilty Plea in AOL Spam Case
 

NEW YORK - A federal judge refused to accept a guilty plea Tuesday from a former America Online software engineer accused of stealing 92 million e-mail addresses and selling them to spammers.

Judge Alvin Hellerstein of Manhattan federal court said he was not convinced Jason Smathers, 24, had actually committed a crime under new federal "can-spam" legislation that took effect earlier this year.

Smathers, of Harpers Ferry, W.Va., planned to enter guilty pleas to charges of conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property. But the judge turned him away and scheduled another hearing for January.

Under a plea deal worked out with federal prosecutors, Smathers faced a potential prison term of 18 months to two years, plus fines.

The judge, who said he dropped his own AOL membership because he received too much spam, said it was not clear that Smathers had deceived anyone ? a requirement of the new law.

Authorities said Smathers, who was fired by AOL in June, used another employee's access code to steal the list of AOL customers in 2003 from its headquarters in Dulles, Va., and sold it to spammers for more than $100,000.

read more at: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...e/aol_spamming

"if ya work 4 aol and ya sellin name lists
ur butt will go to jail like a fuckin rapist"
- ytcracker, spammer court

looks like i was wrong

Sounds like this is going to be an interesting case.