Third Husband Reads E-mail from Second and Shares with First – Faces Criminal Charges
Posted on Dec 28, 2010 11:45am PST
The Detroit Free Press has reported that Leon Walker of Rochester Hills, in an effort to find out if his then-wife, Clara Walker, was committing adultery, unlawfully read her e-mails.
Walker logged onto her computer with her password, while in the home the two shared, to prove to himself that she was carrying on an extramarital affair with her second husband and putting her first husband's child in harm's way.
The second husband had been arrested in the past for beating Clara Walker in front of her child.
Walker, the third husband in the scenario, is now facing a felony charge that could land him in prison for up to 5 years. His trial is scheduled for February 7.
The divorce between Leon Walker and Clara Walker was finalized earlier in December.
Oakland county prosecutors have attested that identity theft such as this, much like stealing trade secrets, fall under a Michigan statute.
Frederick Lane, a Vermont attorney, has published 5 books on the topic of electronic privacy and is considered an expert. He said, "It's going to be interesting because there are no clear legal answers here. I would guess there is enough gray area to suggest that she could not have an absolute expectation of privacy."
Lane contended that Walker routinely had access to the home's computer - the Walkers were married and resided together at the time of the incident - and that fact alone just might help him in his case.
Lane said that 45 percent of divorce cases now involve some kind of snooping by one party of the other. Whether it be Facebook or e-mail, it's now common for civil cases, but not for criminal charges.
He said, "It's an indication of how deeply electronic communication is woven into our lives."
Leon Walker claims that he was worried about the welfare of the child from his ex-wife's first husband, so he shared the e-mail evidence with him as well. The first husband, in an effort to obtain custody, filed an emergency motion to prevent his child from being exposed to further domestic violence.
Once Clara Walker realized how her first husband obtained her private e-mails, she had Leon Walker was arrested in February of 2009.
Leon Walker, a computer technician with Oakland County, told the Free Press, "I was doing what I had to do, we're talking about putting a child in danger."
Jessica Cooper, the Oakland County Prosecutor, said, "The guy is a hacker, it was password protected, he had wonderful skills, and was highly trained. Then he downloaded them and used them in a very contentious way."
Leon Weiss, Walker's defense attorney said, "I've been a defense attorney for 34 years and I've never seen anything like this. This is a hacking statute, the kind of statute they use if you try to break into a government system or private business for some nefarious purpose. It's to protect against identity fraud, to keep somebody from taking somebody's intellectual property or trade secrets."
Clara Walker testified that Leon Walker purchased the laptop for her sole use. Leon Walker contended that "It was a family computer, I did work on it all the time."
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