Recently a judge was reported to have found a suspended Monroe County sheriff’s deputy guilty of making use of spyware to spy on his neighbour’s PC. Ruling following a non-jury trial, acting state Supreme Court Justice Stephen R. Sirkin convicted Investigator R. Michael Hildreth of a misdemeanor of spying and an offense of official misbehavior, however released him of a crime of 3rd degree PC intruding.
Hildreth, 45, is encountered with a fine starting from a conditional discharge - a type of court-supervised probation - to almost 4-years imprisonment. The trial charged Hildreth of carrying out an illegal spying of nearby neighbor James E. Missel, whom he thought posed a threat to young girls in their area on Northrup Road in Penfield. Assistant District Attorney Mark Monaghan maintained a follow-up spying subsequent to Hildreth’s arrest turned up no proof of unlawful activity by Missel.
Hildreth purportedly disseminated Missel an e-mail as to possible job prospects with an attachment that, while opened, implanted the spyware software eBlaster on Missel’s PC and enabled Hildreth to keep an eye on each keystroke done, site-visited and chat room entered on the PC. Hildreth also left a PC disk in his neighbor’s mailbox, allegedly from the similar possible employer, with the similar job info. While put in the PC’s disc drive, it also made download of the malicious spyware.
