Larry Mendte, Alycia Lane's Hacker Co-Anchor, Sentenced To Six Months House Arrest

Former Philadelphia local news anchor Larry Mendte, who admitted over the summer to hacking into co-anchor Alycia Lane's e-mail, was sentenced Monday to six months house arrest by a U.S. district judge.

Mendte admitted in August to reading hundreds of Lane's emails and leaking details to gossip publications. Lane is known nationwide for sending photos of herself in a bikini to sportscaster Rich Eisen and for later when she assaulting a New York City police officer.

Monday, Mendte was sentenced to six months of house arrest, three years probation, a $5,000 fine and 250 hours of community service.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the court-room exchange between Mendte and Lane:

Before he was sentenced, Mendte told the court: "When I look back on the story of my life, I can't believe it brought me to this moment. I am ashamed."

Mendte said he was grateful that Alycia Lane was present so that he could apologize to her.

He turned to look at Lane, whose lower lip was quivering as if she was about to cry, and said: "I am also sorry that you did not believe my previous public apology was sincere."

Present in court, but silent throughout the hearing was Lane, 36, who had filed suit against Mendte contending that his jealousy over her ascending career and popularity led him to hack into her e-mail account and spread salacious details to gossip columnists that ultimately resulted in her firing.

Comments

[rabiddog6708]

I'll bet a lot more of this kind of behavior goes on in the work place than most people realize. I agree with the sentence, though. Don't need to waste precious jail space on a loser like Larry Mendte. Humiliation and home confinement are ample e nough, in my opinion.

[CR46]

Why house arrest and not real jailtime???

[chumley207]

Typical local newscaster: A $100 haircut on a 10 cent head.

[frost12]

WHICH ONE IS THE GIRL?

[LMPE]

This sounds like something lifted right out of a tabloid.

[postman606]

There is a soft-core porn movie, "Stolen Sex Tapes', which is so similar to this real life story.

[Bubba Gump]

This guy gets prosecuted and convicted for looking into e-mails without permission, then using the information to hurt that person. But my real question is: what will Bush and company get for illegal wire-taps? And we know the Bush administration would never out a woman's bikini pics. Unless she worked for CIA and they had a score to settle with her husband. (Remember Valerie Plame?)

[wdw103]

yes and there were no bikini pics

[MichB1]

Although I violently disagree, but Bushies can at least claim they did what they did to "protect and serve." This guy did it for kicks. He terrorized her for his own amusement. It's a pretty fair sentence.

[wdw103]

big deal..........he read her emails wow..........All my EMPs sign an ownership agreement.......that everything produced while on the clock, on the property or electronically connected to my company is work product and is owned by the company.........including but not limited to hardware products, designs, any proprietary electronics, copyright, patentable concepts, email, electronically stored files, hard copies generated from email or electronically stored files on company servers........they may not remove, delete or destroy without prior permission........i read any email i wish to read that comes through my company server as i own the email when it enters my server.........i filter based on thousands of key words and phrases..

[Eoin45]

Flagged for ellipsis abuse...I can't believe someone who can't even properly capitalize sentences can have their own company.

[MadOzbo]

Not EVEN in the same league as a news station.

[postman606]

It sounds like you are the owner of your company, not even in the same ballpark as a co-worker. Or don't you know the difference?

[epitomized]

If you do own your own company, which I doubt (I would bet you're an IT person or administrative assistant), I can only imagine the low morale at said company when it's owner (or whoever you are) cannot trust his/her employees in the least.

[readreza]

read this guy's profile/prev comments... and then completely disregard him. He doesn't believe anyone "beneath" him - and he thinks that's just about everyone - should have no rights except those he deems suitable (read his gay marriage posts, in particular, in which he goes on and on about "his" expenses as an employer and displays his complete ignorance and arrogance).

[SwingVoter]

He got away easy.

[SouthernYankeeBelle]

Talk about easy, what about the woman in FL that pretended to be a boy and the young 13yrs old girl was crazy about him and finally the girl killed herself. Now you talk about getting away with murder. That right there says something about our system. She got no jail time. So if something like this happens again they get away with it. Its just a thought. The workplace is not a place to be on line. You know dang well that your messages are being read by the boss. I never went on line for anything at work. Of course I had nothing to hide either.

[RaraAvis17]

What are the odds of both of these people being complete A-Holes?

[drzoon]

is there NO way at all to see these pictures online? you know, FOR "US"?

it just doesn't seem fair!

i ask you "where is the justice"? WHERE?

[Okieborn]

I would bet him a Bush golf together !!!!!

[whatsgoingon]

He's a creep.

[BillMelater]

What a sweet guy.

http://billmel8er.wordpress.com

[southman]

six months' house arrest for an email hacker? paradise :)

[deeppeace]

Does that include no internet access?

[LiberalBuzz]

Well I am not too offended by the sentence. Six months house arrest can drive you crazy. It's a bird in a gilded cage sort of thing. A good friend of mine was going nuts within a week. IF he's lucky he can do his community service at the same time so he can get out.

YEAH I know he's supposed to be doing time but this was really more of a jealousy thing so hard time would be kind of a waste of taxpayer money.

[haramagoti]

The last thing this story is about is him. A jealousy thing? House arrest can drive him crazy? Tell that to her, honestly. The cost to her career, her extraordinarily hard work to get to where she got, the years of discipline, and she gets fired because he criminally tapped her email account? How are we supposed to empathize with his side of the story whatsoever? No the punishment did not fit the crime.

[ebanks84]

She got fired because of more than that. It was her actions against a police officer that help get her fired.