Pat Dollard

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Court Indictment Docu.

Update: Alleged Palin e-mail hacker goes to trial in December

(WBIR)

A University of Tennessee student has been indicted for illegally accessing the personal e-mail of vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

It alleges David Kernell, 20, used Yahoo’s password recovery tool to gain access to Sarah Palin’s e-mail, by answering questions with information available to the public with some research.

David Kernell is set for trial December 16. He has entered a plea of not guilty.

Kernell turned himself in at court Wednesday morning. The indictment was returned Tuesday and unsealed Wednesday.

When he arrived at court, he was shackled and handcufffed.

The conditions for his release contain more than a dozen provisions, including:

–cannot leave the Eastern District of Tennessee without court permission. Kernell’s family lives in Memphis.
–cannot possess a computer.
–can access e-mail and can only access internet for class work.
–must not have any contact with Gov. Sarah Palin or her family.

The indictment alleges he reset the account’s password and read Palin’s e-mail, then posted screenshots and the password to a public message board.

Kernell could face five years in prison and fines up to $250,000 if convicted.

He is the son of Democratic Rep. Mike Kernell of Memphis. Friends have described Kernell as politically interested but not active. No UT student political organization has claimed him as a member.

UT student David Kernell pleads not guilty in Palin e-mail hacking
Lawmaker’s son must stay off computer except for college work

By Matt Lakin (Knox News)

David Christopher Kernell walked into federal court this morning in handcuffs, shackles and tennis shoes to plead not guilty to hacking Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail account.

He can stay out of jail for now as long as he stays off his computer.

The University of Tennessee student, who is the son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, D-Memphis, turned himself in today after being indicted by a federal grand jury.

He made his first court appearance this morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley and could go to trial Dec. 16.

“David Kernell surrendered voluntarily this morning after being informed of the charges,” said his lawyer, Wade Davies. “We look forward to (the case’s) ultimate resolution in court.”

The judge granted Kernell release as long as he stays off his computer, unless it’s for college purposes, and has no contact with Palin or her family.

“Do you feel like you know what is going on here?” the judge asked Kernell.

“I believe I do,” Kernell said.

Kernell, an economics major at UT, can’t leave East Tennessee without written permission from his probation officer. That includes going home to Memphis.

The judge also ordered him not to discuss the case with any potential witnesses.

Kernell asked the judge if that applied to a girl he’s dating in South Carolina.

His lawyer told Shirley he’ll work that out.

Federal prosecutors wouldn’t say whether their witness list includes Palin, the Alaska governor and running mate of Sen. John McCain.

The single-count indictment, returned Tuesday and unsealed today, alleges that on approximately Sept. 16, 2008, Kernell obtained unauthorized access to Palin’s personal e-mail account by resetting the account password.

According to the indictment, after answering a series of security questions that allowed him to reset the password and gain access to the e-mail account, Kernell read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content and other personal information.

According to the indictment, Kernell posted screenshots of the e-mail and other personal information to a public Web site, along with the new password.

If convicted, Kernell faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three-year term of probation.

A federal grand jury in Chattanooga ended a Sept. 23 session without an indictment after investigators last month searched Kernell’s apartment in Knoxville.

Three students accompanied by Maryville attorney Phil Reed met with the Chattanooga grand jury last month.

“Cyber crime is the FBI’s top criminal investigative priority,” Richard Lambert, special agent in charge of the FBI Knoxville office, said in a press release this morning.

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Knoxville and Anchorage field offices, with Agent Scott Wenger acting as the lead investigator.

It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.s. Attorney Greg Weddle in Knoxville and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krotoski of the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section in Washington.

Kernell’s father said last month he knew bloggers had said his son had claimed responsibility for breaking into Palin’s private account. He said he had nothing to do with the case and didn’t know anything about it.

A person using the e-mail address rubico10@yahoo.com posted a message to an online forum about how he used Yahoo Mail’s password-recovery tool to obtain Palin’s password by entering Palin’s birth date, ZIP code and where Palin met her husband.

The family hired Davies after the weekend search last month of his apartment, which is just off the UT campus downtown.