KYW-TV news anchor Larry Mendte was found guilty this week and sentenced… if you’d car to call it that, to six months’ house arrest for hackinghis colleagues email and creating circumstances that led to her dismissal from her job.
He was given 250 hours community service and a $5,000 fine.
Mendte pleaded guilty to breaking into co-host Alycia Lane’s personal account and forwarding information about her to the press.
One leaked message included information about Lane in a bikini, which had been sent to a married ex-colleague.
Lawyers for Lane said her career had been “destroyed” by a “tabloid feeding frenzy”.
When giving reasons for his hacking the account, Mendte told the court room : “My role at the station was still being diminished when Alycia told me… that she was the rising star and that I was ’50 and on my way out’.”I felt I was in trouble. My career, my future, my family’s future was in trouble. And, this is where I got into more trouble – federal trouble.”
He confessed to breaking into Lane’s email hundreds of times before and after she was dismissed by KYW-TV in January after being arrested. The charges were later dropped and she is currently suing the broadcaster for wrongful dismissal.
