United States v. Riggs
| United States v. Riggs | |
|---|---|
| United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois | |
| Full case name | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Robert J. RIGGS, also known as Robert Johnson, also known as Prophet, and Craig Neidorf, also known as Knight Lightning, Defendants. |
| Date decided | July 27, 1990 |
| Citations | 739 F.Supp. 414, 743 F.Supp. 556 |
| Transcripts | www |
| Judge sitting | Nicholas John Bua |
| Case history | |
| Subsequent actions | Riggs appealed his sentence at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. 967 F.2d 561. |
| Case holding | |
| The Government dropped all charges against Neidorf and a mistrial was declared. Riggs' charges were transferred to Georgia as he had already been indicted there in connection with the same events. Riggs pleaded guilty in Georgia to charges of wire fraud, access code fraud and conspiracy. | |
In United States v. Riggs, the government of the United States prosecuted Robert Riggs and Craig Neidorf for obtaining unauthorized access to and subsequently disseminating a file held on BellSouth's computers. The file, referred to as the E911 file, gave information regarding BellSouth's products implementing 911 emergency telephone services. Riggs and Neidorf were both indicted in the District Court of the Northern District of Illinois on numerous charges relating to the dissemination of the E911 text file. As Riggs had previously been indicted in the Northern District of Georgia in relation to the same incident, his charges from Illinois were transferred to Georgia. Riggs ultimately pleaded guilty in Georgia and was sentenced to 21 months in prison and 2 years supervised release. Neidorf pleaded not guilty in Illinois and the government dropped all charges against Neidorf four days after the trial began.
United States v. Riggs occurred during 1990. At the time, computers and the Internet were not uncommon in businesses and academic institutions, but not yet commonplace in American homes. Several computer break-ins in 1983 had been associated with teenagers in Wisconsin. These teenagers gained notoriety and became known as The 414s. High-profile public incidents perpetrated by groups such as The 414s combined with movies such as WarGames to create a public stereotype of hackers as wayward youths eager to abuse computer knowledge without regard to the consequence of their actions.
Robert Riggs had a previous conviction for computer-related crime in North Carolina in 1986 for unauthorized access to BellSouth's computers. As a result, Riggs was sentenced to 15 days of community service and 18 months of probation.Craig Neidorf was a 20-year-old college student studying pre-law at University of Missouri. Neidorf began publishing the hacker magazine PHRACK at the age of 16 and published 30 issues from 1985 to 1989.
Prior to the proceedings described below in the Northern District of Illinois, Riggs was indicted in the Northern District of Georgia on charges related to the same events. Riggs' Georgia indictment included four counts of wire fraud, three counts of access code fraud and one count of conspiracy. The two indictments in Illinois described below charged Riggs with additional crimes. The charges from Illinois were transferred to Georgia in accordance with Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 20.
...
Wikipedia