Expert: Chris Wagoner - 8/1/2011

Question
QUESTION: Chris,

Back in September 2010, my then estranged wife (now ex-wife) accessed my personal gmail and facebook accounts.  We'd been separated for 3 months. She actually presented the emails and private facebook messages with both my and her attorney present during a meeting.  I believe she wanted to use the contents as leverage for more money in the settlement.  She confronted me about the contents of the emails/messages which were conversations with other women.  After the conversation her attorney asked for the emails back.  I was so stunned during the meeting, it didn't occur to me or my attorney that what she did was illegal.  My attorney requested the emails back from her attorney in writing and her attorney refused to return them.  I have been sitting with this for close to a year and the divorce is now final.  

I am now considering taking action.  Here are my questions: 1) Can her attorney keep my personal property if it was illegally obtained by her client? 2) How do I obtain the IP addresses from which she accessed the data? 3) Who do I report this to and most important, am I too late? 4) Finally, what is the potential punishment for this crime?

I live in PA.  Thanks!

ANSWER: Hi Mark,

Your e-mails that were printed out are not actually your personal property technically. They are copies of a conversation. BUT they are evidence of a crime and can be obtained by Law Enforcement when you report this to them.

All you need to do is report this to the police. Since it was almost a year ago the records may be hard to find as these types of crimes are time sensitive but its worth a try. I would call your local police to see if they investigate these types of crimes (Unauthorized access to a computer network) and if they don't try the local Sheriff then your State police. One of them will handle these and you should be OK. It may be to late, but its right on the border of that so its worth the try.

The punishment depends on where your live and the crime occurred, but if it was just unauthorized access, it is a felony in some states and a misd. in others. Anywhere from 90 days to 5 years.

Don't forget that you also have the right to seek civil damages if you suffered any monetary loss from this. Your attorney should be able to advise you better on that part than I can.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to post a follow up. Good Luck!



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Chris.  The crime occurred in PA and I live in PA.  I believe that it's a 3rd degree felony here.  Can you confirm this? When you say that's "right on the border" are you saying that there is a statute of limitations for this crime?

Thanks again for your help.

Answer
Hi Mark,

You have to research the laws that were in effect back then. You can't use the 2011 laws. What happens is that the laws that were in effect when the crime was committed are what they use. So you would need to research the laws for PA back in 2010.

As for being "right on the border" I mean that records from e-mail and ISP's are only kept for a certain amount of time and then they delete them. A year is a long time to hope the records are still in the e-mail providers records and your ISP. Internet and computer crimes are sometimes time sensitive and if you do not get them reported in a timely fashion sometimes the records "disappear" because they were deleted by the providers for space requirements. Imagine the equipment and space that would be required if Yahoo or Gmail stored every e-mail for more than a year. So they purge records after a certain time to save on storage space requirements.

A Fel. 3rd is 1-5 years in most cases.

Hope that answers your question.