Michigan man may get 5 years for reading wife's email

Leon Walker, 33, has been charged with unlawfully reading wife's, Clara, email. For the alleged offense, the Rochester Hills resident faces a trial in February, and might get up to 5 years in jail.

Walker used Clara's password to break into her Gmail account, where he discovered that his wife was having an affair. Then the duo filed for a divorce which was finalized earlier this month.

How the hacking surfaced?
When Walker found that his wife was having an affair with someone else, who had previously been taken into custody for beating Clara in front of her son, Leon handed over the emails Clara's first husband, who is child's father.

That's when Oakland County prosecutors, charged him for hacking under the Michigan statute, which is usually used to for offenses like identity theft or stealing trade secrets.

Walker used Clara's password to break into her Gmail account, where he discovered that his wife was having an affair. Then the duo has filed for a divorce which was finalized earlier this month.

Walker's attorney Leon Weiss was quoted by Detroit Free Press as saying, "I've been a defense attorney for 34 years and I've never seen anything like this."

"This is a hacking statute, the kind of statute they use if you try to break into a government system or private business for some nefarious purpose," he added.

Difference of opinion
But not all legal experts are convinced that Walker should not be charged under Michigan statute.

Frederick Lane, a Vermont attorney and author of five books on electronic privacy believes, "I would guess there is enough gray area to suggest that she could not have an absolute expectation of privacy."

Labeling Walker “a hacker” Oakland County prosecutor Jessica Cooper added that since Clara's account was password protected, his husband used his skills of a computer technician to get access to the account.

Though many are not in favor of Leon, he says that he did this in order to protect the child.

Walker told the paper, "I was doing what I had to do,” adding “We're talking about putting a child in danger."

This is not the first divorce case related to breaking into e-mail accounts.

In fact, approximately 45 percent of divorce cases in the United States are centered around electronic snooping, which including unlawfully reading emails, or checking out social networking sites, like Facebook.