Washington County district court judge sentenced Woodbury resident Timothy Noirjean to 150 days in jail, five years on probation and more than $15,000 in fines.
27 year old Noirjean pleaded guilty to 13 counts of electronic identity theft. He was accused of posing as a Facebook
friend to an Oakdale woman and hacking her information – and
information belonging to her friends. Washington County Attorney Pete
Orput said his prosecutors never budged from his assertion in 2011 that
the case would not be plea-bargained. “I’m not willing to tell one
or several (of the victims) that we dismissed one or several of the
counts in return for guilty pleas for the others,” Orput said.
He
said he was committed to getting convictions on the 13 counts – all
felonies – due to the harm caused by Noirjean’s actions. After hacking
the women’s information, Noirjean posted photos of several of the women on an adult website.
Orput said that while his office could prosecute Noirjean, it couldn’t legally make the website take down the photos. “That harm goes on forever,” he said.
Orput
said Internet users must be critical when it comes to sharing
information, adding that identity theft has emerged as perhaps the most
common crime in Washington County. “This case illustrates the need to
be very, very safe and vigilant online,” he said. “I hope people just
won’t share passwords with anybody.”
According
to a criminal complaint, the woman reported having a Facebook chat
with someone she thought was a friend. When the woman logged off Facebook, then attempted to log back in, she learned her password had been changed.
After gaining access to her Facebook
page, she found a link on her page that appeared to have been posted
by the friend she had been chatting with earlier. That link led to a sexually explicit website
that contained three of the woman’s photos and identified her by first
and last name and city of residence. Those photos had been stored in
her email account, according to the complaint.
The
woman then realized that she had unwittingly disclosed account
information to her chat correspondent, later identified as Noirjean.
The friend Noirjean had been posing as also learned her account
information had been hacked.
Police
closed in on Noirjean using Internet records. In an interview with
police, Noirjean admitted to hacking into or attempting to hack more
than 100 accounts. More victims were discovered after a search of Noirjean’s computer.
As part of the sentence, Tenth District Court Judge Elizabeth Martin ordered Noirjean to pay $1,000 to each of the 13 victims. She also required him to pay more than $2,000 to two women to cover computer expenses.
source:voiceofgreyhat
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