Jury finds Oregon man guilty of cyberstalking and making threats for numerous threats he made to his former co-workers and law enforcement officials

A jury found an Oregon man guilty of cyberstalking and making threats related to numerous threats he made to his former co-workers and law enforcement officials.

Michael A. Hagar, 48, is scheduled to be sentenced later this year. A jury found him guilty of one count of cyberstalking and two counts of interstate threatening communication after a weeklong trial.

Hagar was employed at a Goodyear store in Salem, Oregon, from 2011 through 2013. He was employed by Eaton in Portland, Oregon, from 2014 through 2015. He was involuntarily terminated from both positions, according to court documents and trial testimony.

Hager sent numerous threatening e-mails to at least seven former co-workers at Eaton and Goodyear in 2015 and 2016, as well as threatening emails to law enforcement officials in Oregon. The e-mails he sent traveled through Eaton and Goodyear data centers in Northeast Ohio, according to court documents and trial testimony.

In 2016, Hagar was personally served with a temporary stalking protective order ordering him to stop any contact with an Eaton employee identified as R.G. He was also arrested for trespassing on Goodyear property in Oregon, according to court documents and trial testimony.

On May 30, 2016, he sent an email to R.G. and Oregon law enforcement officials with the subject line: “I AM GOING TO RUIN EVERYONE OF YOU(R) LIVES,” according to court documents and trial testimony.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel J. Riedl and Om Kakani following an investigation by the FBI.

Former High School Teacher Sentenced for “Celebgate” Hacking

RICHMOND, Va. – A Richmond man was sentenced today to almost three years in prison for charges of unauthorized access to a protected computer and aggravated identity theft.

According to court documents, Christopher Brannan, 31, intentionally accessed without authorization Internet and email accounts, including Apple iCloud, Yahoo!, and Facebook accounts, and obtained complete iCloud backups, photographs, and other private information belonging to more than 200 victims, including both celebrities and non-celebrities. Brannan hacked email accounts by answering security questions that he could easily research by reviewing victims’ Facebook accounts.

Brannan also gained access to victims’ accounts by using phishing email accounts designed to look like legitimate security accounts from Apple. Because of the victims’ belief that the email had come from Apple, the victims would provide their usernames and passwords. Brannan would then access the victims’ email accounts, and search for personal information such as sensitive and private photographs and videos, including nude photographs. Authorities identified Brannan as a suspect during a California-based FBI investigation into hacked iCloud accounts commonly known as “Celebgate.”

As part of Brannan’s plea agreement, the United States made a non-binding recommendation to the Court that he be sentenced to 34 months in prison. At sentencing, Senior U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson accepted the government’s recommendation and imposed the agreed-upon sentence.

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Thomas M. Chadwick, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Field Office, made the announcement after the sentencing hearing. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian R. Hood prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information is located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:18-cr-118.

Criminal Justice Technology in the News

Law Enforcement News

New Castle County Police Launch Tip and Alert App
Delaware Public Media, (02/14/2019), Sophia Schmidt
The New Castle County Police Department has released a new app to communicate with residents. Police can send alerts, for example, on road closures, and the community can submit tips. The app enables two-way anonymous communication.
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S.A.F.E. Alert System App is Free for NH Parents and Educators
Manchester Ink Link, (02/15/2019)
Schools and parents in New Hampshire now have a free app to improve communication between educators and families in emergencies. The Safety. Alerts. For. Education. (S.A.F.E.) application uses geo-fencing technology via the global positioning system, allowing administrators and law enforcement to instantly alert students and staffers of a threat via their cellphones.
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Michigan State Police Training Dogs to Find Hidden Technology
WNDU, (02/20/2019)
Michigan State Police are training K-9s to find hidden technology such as thumb drives, SD cards and cellphones. The six-week training for the dogs introduces them to electronic chemical odors.
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New High-Tech Tools Working to Help Police Fight Crime in Jacksonville
New4Jax, (02/20/2019), Jim Piggott
Jacksonville's real-time crime center includes connections to 20 surveillance cameras and microphones to help police track crimes. According to Sheriff Mike Williams, by the end of the year, 100 cameras will be in place where the majority of crimes occur.
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DNA, Old-Fashioned Police Work, Leads to Arrest in 1973 Cold Case Murder
The Orange County Register, (02//21/2019), Keith Sharon
DNA recently helped lead to an arrest for the 1973 murder of an 11-year-old girl in Newport Beach, Calif. Using DNA from the crime scene, a company in Virginia created a sketch of what the killer may have looked like, and created another sketch of what the killer may have looked as an elderly man. The DNA was matched with a sample from FamilyTreeDNA.com. An arrest was made in February.
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Oxford Police Lead Regional Effort to Share Drones With Area Police Departments
Telegram & Gazette, (02/23/2019), Brian Lee
The Oxford Police Department in Massachusetts is heading up a regional effort to share drones with police departments that don't have one. Oxford's drone has a 360-degree combination high-definition and thermal camera to capture still photos and video.
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Corrections News

Missouri Prisons and Jails Are One Step Closer to Becoming No-Drone Zones
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, (02/18/2019), Jack Suntrup
The Missouri House has given first-round approval to legislation that would ground drones near state correctional facilities. Department of Corrections officials have raised concerns about potential aerial contraband drops. An amendment approved would also ban flights near municipal and county jails, private jails and mental health hospitals. The measure requires a final vote in the House before moving to the Senate for consideration.
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Florida Lawmakers Seek to Move Inmates Closer to Home
The News Service of Florida, (02/15/2019)
Proposals have been filed in the Florida House and Senate that would require the Florida Department of Corrections to move many inmates to prisons closer to their homes. The bills are filed for consideration during the legislative session that starts March 5.
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Pennsylvania Prisons to Stop Copying Inmates' Legal Mail
The Morning Call, (02/22/2019), Steve Esack
The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections has agreed per a lawsuit settlement to stop intercepting and copying inmates' legal mail as part of its drug surveillance and security plans. The settlement was announced on February 22 by the department and four civil rights groups that had joined an inmate in suing the department over its mail screening policy.
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The Private Prison Experiments: Is There Any Positive in For-Profit Imprisonment?
Salon, (02/25/2019), Lauren-Brooke Eisen
This opinion piece examines use of private prisons in Australia and New Zealand and efforts to better structure prison contracts.
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Corrections Agency Discovers Sentence Calculation Problem
The Associated Press via The Tribune, (02/25/2019)
A software problem has prompted the Washington state Department of Corrections to review up to 3,500 sentences after learning that at least a dozen prison inmates were incarcerated too long or released too early. The Seattle Times reported that the calculation problem involves offenders who served time in prison before being released into community supervision but then violated the terms of their releases and were returned to prison.
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How to Treat Depression in Prison – and Why It Matters
Michigan State University, (02/19/2019)
This discusses research done by Michigan State University that tested the effectiveness of interpersonal psychotherapy for inmates with major depressive disorder as a strategy to bring affordable treatment into a prison setting.
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