TRENTON
– A Hamilton man pleaded guilty today
to accessing a woman’s email account
and retrieving nude photos of her without
her authorization, Attorney General Anne
Milgram announced.
Mario
Esposito, 21, of Hamilton, Mercer County,
pleaded guilty to an accusation charging
him with third-degree computer criminal
activity before Superior Court Judge Gerald
J. Council in Mercer County. The charge
resulted from an investigation by the New
Jersey State Police Cyber-Crimes Unit.
Under
the plea agreement, the state will recommend
a sentence of probation conditioned on Esposito
serving a county jail term not to exceed
364 days. In addition, Esposito must undergo
a psychological examination and participate
in any course of treatment recommended as
a result of that exam at his own expense.
He will be prohibited from using the Internet
during his period of probation except for
employment or school purposes.
Judge
Council scheduled Esposito’s sentencing
for Jan. 7.
In
pleading guilty, Esposito admitted that
between May 17 and June 13 of this year,
he logged into the Yahoo! email account
of the 19-year-old victim without her authorization
and accessed email files containing personal
photographs. The State Police investigation
determined that he copied nude photographs
of her from her email files into his own
computer files.
Deputy
Attorney General Mark A. Murtha took the
guilty plea for the Division of Criminal
Justice Computer Analysis and Technology
Unit. The case was investigated by Detective
Sgt. John F. Gorman and Detective Brian
Kearns of the New Jersey State Police Cyber-Crimes
Unit.
Esposito
was arrested on June 13, when State Police
detectives executed a search warrant at
his home and seized his home computer. He
was released on $35,000 bail.
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