Criminal law took a giant leap this week with the first alleged crime in space. While “It Came From Outer Space” was originally about aliens, Summer Worden claims it was identity theft that came from space in this sequel. She has accused her former spouse Anne McClain of illegally accessing her bank accounts from the International Space Station. This would not make McClain a “space pirate” since she is on a U.S. flagged vessel, but she would be the first confirmed space criminal if convicted.
Worden is an ex-Air Force intelligence officer who has filed a complaint with Federal Trade Commission and NASA of identity theft. She is also accused by Worden’s parents of carrying out a “highly calculated and manipulative campaign” to gain custody of Worden’s 6-year-old son after their divorce last year.
Worden had the boy a year before she met McClain. While they were still married in 2018, McClain went to court on her own to adopt the boy. Worden opposed the adoption. She not only sought to adopt but to assume the exclusive right to designate the primary residence of the child” if the couple divorced. She later accused Worden of having a temper and poor judgment.
Worden found that McCalin gained access to her accounts though there is no allegation of theft of funds. It took some doing for the former NSA employee. She confirmed from the bank that one of the computers used was registered to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. McClain insists that she was merely accessing the account from the ISS to be sure that she could support the child and that their finances remained intertwined. She further says that Worden had previously agreed to such access. If they were divorced at the time, such access would be difficult to justify without proof of consent. Both have also made statements to the federal agencies and are subject to criminal prosecution for false statements under 18 U.S.C. 1001.
There are massive pronoun ambiguity problems in this article. It is damn near impossible to know the facts from the writing with certainty.
This is compounded by the fact that both parties int he relationship are “she”.
This all appears to be about “Worden’s child”.
It appears the child is Worden’s natural or adopted child from before the relationship.
Absent pretty damning information regarding Worden – McClain is not getting custody of the child.
While the child appears to be a driving factor in all of this – the “identity theft” claim, related or not gets judged on its own merits.
If the bank account in question was “joint” or if Worden gave McClain the information needed to access it, the “identity theft ” claim should just die.
Though the seeds of discontent appear to have already been sown, the two were in a legal relationship at the time. The presumption of legitimacy rests with McClain.
Her purpose in accessing the account is irrelevant if she arguably had a right to do so.
As best as I can tell at the time
The two were married.
McClain had the information needed to access the account.
There is a claim that their finances were intermingled.
Any one of these is likely sufficient to preclude this being a crime.
In any grouping about 1% will be responsible for any crimes committed across the spectrum of criminal acts. Cato Institute found that and cited the general population versus criminals in general and criminal police compared to the entire police population.
http://www.policemisconduct.net/arguing-the-case-for-police-accountability-part-1/
Arguing The Case For Police Accountability – Part 1
May 9, 2010 @ 4:56 PM by David Packman
The inference was all of them no matter where found might have similar traits or even working conditions and having identified that the information could be used to write the standards for employment, conduct and working conditions.
This story is really about using the criminal justice system as leverage in a child custody dispute. A new twist on an ageless theme, with some added legs in that both are lesbians, one is an astronaut, and the other is an intelligence officer who knows how to work the system to her benefit. It has the added benefit of getting the ex in trouble at work and embarrassing them in a very public way. What an unfortunate waste of limited resources and intellectual horsepower in the service of an intra-family dispute involving a young child.
I saw this on Drudge. The defendant does have a “reasonable” explanation considering she was in space for six months. She does have an interest of care.
On and Off topic: If you want to talk crime lets talk about the systematic, international abuse of children by this and other governments:
“It is this tale of intrigue that fully reveals the extent to which this decades-old alliance between organized crime, the CIA, and Israeli intelligence has corrupted and influenced politicians of both political parties, both through the use of sexual blackmail and through other means of coercion.
Far from being the work of a single intelligence agency or a single country, the power structure revealed by this network connected to Epstein is nothing less than a criminal enterprise that transcends nationality and is willing to use and abuse children in the pursuit of ever more power, wealth and control. Existing for decades and willing to use any means necessary to cover its tracks, this criminal racket has become so integrated into the levers of power, in the United States and well beyond, that it is truly too big to fail.”
See Whitney’s Webb’s part 4 installment on Mint Press News concerning what is going on w/Epstein and his connection to the powerful, sadistic child rapists that we call our “leaders”.
Huh? If you are bent you are bent and you are bent all the way.
From your first space launch til your last dying day.
So which one has a dong? Which one fathered the “son”?
What’s “space” got to do with it?
If you commit a crime in Texas then you have committed a crime which can be prosecuted in state court in Texas or perhaps federal court. If you commit a crime in Mexico then you cannot be prosecuted in Texas or the U.S. If you commit a crime in Space then you might get prosecuted in Space. That is not a “high” crime or misdemeanor. Of course the space vehicle might have been flying over Texas and therefore was in Texas.
The Outer Space Treaty and other core treaties of space law say national jurisdiction ends in space, but “space” has never firmly been defined in terms of altitude above the Earth’s surface.
https://www.asil.org/topics/signaturetopics/BNJ/outerspace
Prof. Turley’s right, it comes down to which flag was on the vessel in which the alleged crimes were committed. The accused was an American citizen on a mission subsidized by the USA, and in the pay of an agency of the USA.
State law? Depends on the location of the banks and the Earth side of the telecommunication link over which the alleged identity theft occurred, but US states aren’t signatories to the OST or other treaties – the US federal government acts in their behalf, owns a large part of that station, and its FBI is probably the lead investigative agency along with the Inspector General of NASA.