Man charged with reading his wife's e-mail

A December 26, 2010 article in the Detroit Free Press reports that a Rochester Hills man has been charged with a felony by Oakland County prosecutors after he logged into his wife's laptop computer and e-mail account using her password.

The defendant, Leon Walker, is the woman's third husband. After reading the e-mails, Mr. Walker learned that his wife was having an affair with her second husband, a man who was previously arrested for abusing wife in front of her son. Mr. Walker thought he was being diligent by turning the e-mails over to his wife's first husband (also the child's father), who then filed a motion for custody. Subsequently, Mr. Walker was arrested and charged as prosecutors allege that he illegally hacked into his wife's computer using sophisticated methods. He contends that it was a family computer and that his wife kept all of her passwords in a notebook near the computer.

This seems to be quite a controversial topic as Mr. Walker is being charged under MCL 752.795, a statute which provides the following:

A person shall not intentionally and without authorization or by exceeding valid authorization do any of the following:

(a) Access or cause access to be made to a computer program, computer, computer system, or computer network to acquire, alter, damage, delete, or destroy property or otherwise use the service of a computer program, computer, computer system, or computer network.

(b) Insert or attach or knowingly create the opportunity for an unknowing and unwanted insertion or attachment of a set of instructions or a computer program into a computer program, computer, computer system, or computer network, that is intended to acquire, alter, damage, delete, disrupt, or destroy property or otherwise use the services of a computer program, computer, computer system, or computer network. This subdivision does not prohibit conduct protected under section 5 of article I of the state constitution of 1963 or under the first amendment of the constitution of the United States.

Generally, this statute has been reserved for more "hacking" type crimes, such as breaking into a business' computer system, stealing trade secrets or for identity theft. According to the Free Press article, many area defense attorneys were "astonished" by the filing of these charges against Mr. Walker as it could lead to a slippery slope of similar charges being filed in all sorts of domestic situations.