Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
You may recall an article that I wrote back in January discussing the Steubenville, Ohio rape case. It was a case where members of the town’s high school football team were charged with repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting an unconscious young girl and it also exposed the community support these alleged rapists had. In that case a local unit of the Hacktivist group, Anonymous, published tweets and pictures of the alleged rapists. One of the citations or links that I provided in the article has since been taken down and now the local Anonymous activist had his home raided by a FBI SWAT team and may be charged with hacking into the high school website and could face a potential 10 year sentence for the alleged crimes! You may ask what are the sentences that the now convicted rapists are facing? Since they were minors at the time of the alleged serial rape, they are facing 2 year sentences.
“In April, the FBI quietly raided the home of the hacker known as KYAnonymous in connection with his role in the Steubenville rape case. Today he spoke out for the first time about the raid, his true identity, and his motivations for pursuing the Steubenville rapists, in an extensive interview with Mother Jones.
“The goal of the media interviews is to get the entire nation to say ‘f-uck you’ to these guys,” said KYAnonymous, whose real name is Deric Lostutter. He was referring to the federal agents who raided his home in Winchester, Kentucky, and carted off his computers and XBox.
Lostutter may deserve more credit than anyone for turning Steubenville into a national outrage. After a 16-year-old girl was raped by two members of the Steubenville High football team last year, he obtained and published tweets and Instagram photos in which other team members had joked about the incident and belittled the victim. He now admits to being the man behind the mask in a video posted by another hacker on the team’s fan page, RollRedRoll.com, where he threatened action against the players unless they apologized to the girl. (The rapists were convicted in March.)” Mother Jones
Does it trouble you that the FBI sent a fully armed SWAT team out to execute a search warrant at the home of a single hacker for the alleged crime of hacking into a high school team’s fan webpage when another hacker has admitted that he/she hacked into the webpage? “Lostutter says he played no role in the hacking the team’s fan page; he points out that another hacker, Batcat, has publicly taken the credit. Mother Jones
Was the FBI just being prudent and careful in “taking down” this dangerous alleged criminal, or were they sending Mr. Lostutter and the rest of his comrades in the Anonymous community a message? Mr. Lostutter has not been indicted as of yet and the FBI will not confirm if an investigation is continuing according to the lawyer representing Lostutter.
“Lostutter is being represented by Jason Flores-Williams of the Whistleblower’s Defense League, a coalition of lawyers who specializes in defending hacktivists and freedom of information campaigners. The Whistleblower’s Defense League has set up a fund to raise money for Lostutter’s defense.
Flores-Williams told Gawker the raid was connected to a grand jury investigation in Ohio, though Lostutter has not yet been informed that he is a target of the investigation.
“We certainly hope the United States comes to its senses and decides not to indict, and if they do we will aggressively litigate the incident,” said Flores-Williams. “What’s unique here to me is that it’s not a national security issue. This isn’t at the forefront at the NSA or the CIA. This comes out of the heartland of the country, and this is a person who is just trying to do what is right for the heartland.” ‘ Gawker
While I do not condone hacking into any individual’s or any group’s computers, wouldn’t it make sense for the FBI to send the SWAT team to the home of the individual who has admitted to the alleged crime? If the FBI can determine who the KYAnoonymous hacker was, why can’t they determine who is responsible for the mountains of spam that hit my computer on a daily basis and send the SWAT team to end that nonsense? I would imagine that the Nigerian Prince who wants me to send him money so that he can give me millions is much more dangerous than Mr. Lostutter!
I urge you to read the full search warrant that I have provided here, thanks to Gawker. It is amazing how thorough the FBI can be when it is going after a dastardly character like Mr. Lostutter. Is this kind of blunt force governmental reaction a symptom of larger problems on the horizon for the rest of us?
I have to admit that I do love watching the movie “V for Vengence” whenever I can, but I hope that watching it will not cause me to appear on the FBI’s radar. I am not sure my neighbors will look kindly at the FBI SWAT team charging through their flower beds to encircle my abode. I guess it is becoming safer to cheat and steal millions using the mechanisms Wall Street has at its disposal than to actually speak up about a heinous crime committed against a defenseless woman! What do you think?
(Please note that one of the earlier quotes contained the “F” word and I had to amend it in order to get past the WordPress censors!)