     23 June 1997, ZDNet:

     New twist/ Feds Recant on Mitnick's Fugitive Status 

     Back in 1994, a supposedly fleeing Kevin Mitnick told anyone 
     who would listen he really wasn't a fugitive from justice. 
     He claimed to be just a paranoid hacker who didn't want to 
     stick around once his probation was up. As it turns out, he 
     may have been telling me the truth. In a federal court in Los 
     Angeles, the government admitted it had made a mistake in saying 
     that Mitnick was on the lam. 

     The admission may put an entirely different twist on the case.
     If Mitnick wasn't really a fugitive, a couple of probation
     violations mistakenly escalated into one the biggest manhunts
     in cyberspace. Petty offenses by Mitnick -- probably
     punishable by an extension of his probation -- spun into a
     nationwide cat-and-mouse game that drew a frenzy of media
     hype. Along the way, Mitnick, who may have been no more
     than a scofflaw, instead became the notorious criminal
     mastermind the authorities apparently wanted him to be. 

     The change in the government's stance came to light last
     week during a routine pre-sentencing hearing before Federal
     Judge Mariana Pfaelzer. The U.S. Marshal the government
     had relied upon to claim that Mitnick fled before his
     three-year probation was finished on December 7, 1992,
     testified he never made any such statement. Minutes later,
     Mitnick's former probation officer, Frank Gulla admitted he
     wrongly stated that Mitnick was a fugitive. 

     No longer able to prove Mitnick was a fugitive, the
     government instead claimed the hacker was tardy with his
     paperwork, failing to submit three monthly supervision
     reports. But Gulla testified that for 33 months, until
     September 1992, Mitnick "conscientiously" complied with the
     reporting requirements of his 36 months supervision. "When
     a person establishes kind of a track record on supervision, I
     don't necessarily hold it against them if they are late with a
     report," Gulla testified, "and in fairness to Mr. Mitnick, people
     are late with their reports..." 

     The probation officer spoke with Mitnick in October and
     November without ever telling the hacker he was tardy in his
     reports, and even gave him permission on October 28, 1992
     to travel to Las Vegas. Testimony demonstrated that the
     probation officer and the hacker spoke on October 5th, 6th,
     9th, 21st, 28th, 30th and November 2nd. Phone records
     subpoenaed by Mitnick proved he called the officer as late as
     December 4th. 

     Ironically, on December 7, 1992, the last day of his
     three-year probation, Mitnick met with his psychologist (the
     court had ordered that he seek counseling for his obsessive
     hacking), a fact attested to by the therapist in a declaration to
     the court. At the very time government alleged Mitnick was a
     dangerous fugitive, the world's "most wanted" computer
     hacker was following court orders, having his head checked
     with his shrink. 

     Next Monday, Mitnick's attorney will ask Judge Pfaelzer to
     make a formal finding that Mitnick was not a fugitive. For
     Mitnick, last week's testimony made the question moot. The
     14-month sentence he will receive for supervised release
     violations will be based solely on a secret warrant filed a
     month before his three-year probation expired -- but not
     served on him until his arrest more than two years later.
     Mitnick was charged with associating with a former
     accomplice and accessing the voice mail of Pac Bell security
     officials. 

     Mitnick's alleged Pac Bell intrusions, a petty offense, fit the
     profile of an obsessive hacker. Mitnick told me several years
     ago that he was attempting to discover whether the
     government was putting him under phone surveillance, and
     operating a criminal undercover agent who went by the
     handle Agent Steal. Mitnick has claimed that Agent Steal
     attempted to entrap him while he was on probation,
     encouraging him to commit crimes. 

     Despite the admission by the U.S. Marshal and Mitnick's
     former parole officer, federal prosecutors still contend that
     Mitnick eventually did become a fugitive. "We believe that
     Mr. Mitnick did, in fact, become a fugitive it is clear for two
     and half years," Assistant U.S. attorney Christopher Painter
     declared during the hearing. 

     Until Mitnick's trial set for January, 1998, the public may not
     know for certain why the government escalated a routine
     probation case into a national manhunt. And it will also have
     to wait until then for answers to two other compelling
     questions: Did the government have clear evidence of specific
     crimes? Or did Mitnick's troubles stem from his attempt to
     protect himself by investigating the investigators? 

     Jonathan Littman is the author of The Fugitive Game, online
     with Kevin Mitnick and The Watchman. 

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     23 June 1997, ZDNet:

     Hacker Mitnick To Be Sentenced 

     Kevin Mitnick, once the FBI's most wanted hacker, is set to be 
     sentenced Monday in Los Angeles to 22 months -- six months 
     less than he's already served since his celebrated February 15, 
     1995 arrest in North Carolina, according to attorneys close to 
     the case. 

     Monday's sentence is for violating the terms of his probation
     for swiping Digital Equipment Corp. source code in the
     1980's, and for minor cellular-fraud charges arising from
     North Carolina. This past Monday, United States District
     Judge Mariana Pfaelzer indicated a sentence of 14 months on
     a supervised release charge and 8 months on a single North
     Carolina charge of fraudulently making under $2,000 worth
     of cellular phone calls. 

     Though technically eligible for bail, the 33-year-old Mitnick
     may not be surfing the Web any time soon. His sentencing
     may only be the beginning of what government prosecutors
     have privately warned could be a revolving door of
     indictments and trials throughout the nation on a series of
     other charges related to other hacking cases. 

     Next January, Mitnick will likely face trial on charges that he
     allegedly copied source code from major cellular-phone
     manufacturers while a fugitive from justice. Mitnick nearly
     accepted a plea agreement on that case, but talks stalled last
     year, and the government indicted the hacker in September.
     At the time, the prosecutor stated Mitnick could be sentenced
     to a maximum of 200 years in prison. To date, no hacker has
     served more than five years. 

     The indictment names Motorola Inc., Nokia Mobile Phones
     Inc., Fujitsu Ltd. and others as victims of ruses by Mitnick,
     who allegedly falsely impersonated executives in order gain
     computer access. Key to the case may be the "value" of the
     proprietary source code allegedly taken. The government has
     not alleged that Mitnick damaged the pirated software or
     profited by his crimes or for that matter, did anything with it.
     Sources close to the government say it will allege at trial that
     the downloaded code was worth over $80 million -- an
     amount that happens to be the figure necessary to receive the
     maximum federal sentence. 

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