Larry Mendte Pleads Guilty

Dun dun dun! As you may have heard, this morning Larry Mendte pled guilty to one count of illegally accessing email. Dun dun dun!

Mendte had no comment as he emerged from the courtroom, but his wife, Fox29 anchor Dawn Stensland, said, “I love my husband, and he’s a good man.” During the 35-minute proceeding, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Levy recounted the government’s evidence and said that Mendte hacked into Lane’s email accounts more than 500 times between January and May of this year.

“To your knowledge, is everything he said accurate and correct?” asked McLaughlin. “Yes,” replied Mendte, who was in court with his defense attorney Michael Schwartz.

Mendte told the judge that he was “a little nervous, your honor, but I feel okay” as she sought to make sure that Mendte wanted to plead guilty and was legally competent to do so. He said that he has “seen a therapist since this happened” and has been prescribed Ativan but rarely takes it.

Larry Mendte is on benzos! (Lorazepam, better known by the brand name Atvian, is a benzodiazepine — a downer, if you want to get less technical.) Mendte on benzos is totally not going to be able to hack into anybody’s email accounts. Let’s just hope he’s not “rarely” taking it because he’s trading it on the black market for email address passwords.

Mendte pleads guilty [Inquirer]

Larry Mendte Still Allowed To Use Email

Michael Klein alerted everyone to Larry Mendte’s official website in yesterday’s Inquirer. Brad Maule will be happy to see that he’s using an updated skyline shot with the Comcast Center; everyone else should probably be terrified of the 75-foot Mendte that will kill us all.

I can only assume Mendte is harvesting email addresses and will be sending replies that contain rootkits, so he can soon be reading everyone’s email.

larrymendte.com

Dan Gross: First Amendment Defender

The Daily News writes about the case against Larry Mendte today, and does address the paper’s own mentions in the court documents.

(Fox 29, also, mentioned last night that Dawn Stensland is Mendte’s wife; it wasn’t really anything special, but it was kind of sad to hear Kerri-Lee Halkett be forced to say “fair and balanced.”)

Mendte, incidentally, will plead guilty, according to his lawyer.

The Daily News story has some great lines, such as: “And that was just as Lane, dubbed ‘anchorbabe’ and the ‘Latina bombshell,’ had suspected.” And here we go, straight out of a film noir movie:

Then, he allegedly dispensed intimate details to the Daily News of Lane’s late-night confrontation with undercover New York police, in which she allegedly called a policewoman a slur, as well as confidential attorney-client communications about her lawsuits. These details then appeared on PhillyGossip.com, a blog written by Dan Gross [in the photo, with an indestructible cheerleader], and later in the Daily News.

Asked if Mendte supplied information about Lane, Gross said, “I don’t discuss whether anyone is, or is not, a source of mine.” Asked if he cooperated in the FBI investigation, Gross said, “Absolutely not. I have never been contacted by any investigator in the case.”

Ha ha, Dan Gross is going to shut anyone down! He’s ready to go to jail to protect his known source, Larry Mendte! (Unless Mendte leaked to Regina Medina or Damon C. Williams.)

The feds also found the famed Alycia Lane bikini pix on Mendte’s computer, but didn’t say if he was Page 6’s source. If he was, Larry: Shame on you. For the first time since this scandal started I am actually mad. One, he could have released them to the public. And two, he could have at least given them to a news source in Philadelphia instead of the New York Post. We can take lawbreakers, Larry; we don’t tolerate Benedict Arnolds.

Mendte faces a felony count [Daily News]
Photo via South Philly Review

The Best Part Of The Mendte Charges

How did I almost forget? Philly.com posted the full set of charges against Larry Mendte (.pdf) on the front page, and the above (click to enlarge) is the highlight.

So, yes, at least in this instance — and, might I add, this is the most boring instance possible — the government alleges Larry Mendte did provide information to a reporter based on his (alleged!) email snooping.

Larry Mendte Charged By Feds

The government made it official today and charged Larry Mendte with reading Alycia Lane’s email; apparently, doing so is a felony.

Mendte was charged with one count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization. Authorities allege he checked Lane’s email 537 times (in a row?!) after getting her password.

“As we continually have said from day one, Larry has been cooperating fully with the investigators. He continues to cooperate and will accept full responsibility for his actions,” Mendte’s lawyer said. Blah, blah, blah, jailtime is probably unlikely.

Larry Mendte to be charged today [AP/6 ABC]

John Bolaris Makes Local News More Fun

The Inquirer’s Michael Klein got a cover story in yesterday’s Inquirer about Larry Mendte, and how some people liked him, and others didn’t. Wow, it’s kinda like me, except people like him.

The article was pretty good if only because it reminded me that Mendte was the first host of Access Hollywood; perhaps he will return to a different celebrity newsmagazine (say, Extra!) to team with the guy from Sugar Ray. But the best part was John Bolaris’ quote; the Fox weatherman was one of the few people to go on the record about Mendte. (Vai Sikahema also gave a positive quote about Larry inbetween knockouts.)

In 2001, while Bolaris was catching grief for predicting a huge snowstorm that didn’t materialize, Mendte confronted him.

Mendte “calls me into a room and says, ‘How dare you destroy what I’ve created here?’ I said, ‘What you have created here?’ He said, ‘I mean we.’ ” Bolaris said Mendte later apologized.

Bolaris, one of the few local TV personalities who agreed to speak publicly about Mendte, said that if Mendte had been spying on Lane, “I hope he gets what he deserves. I also think he owes a big-time apology to Alycia Lane, the viewers, his family” and his station.

What makes this even better is Bolaris works with Mendte’s wife, Dawn Stensland. Ha ha, the 10 O’Clock News could be hilarious tonight.

Mendte could push either way [Inquirer]

Philly.com’s Quest For A Traffic Spike

Ah, yeah, the current Philly.com front is the kind of thing that gets put into museums of pure awesomeness. It was great when I woke up this morning, but since then it’s only gotten about 100 times better. My personal favorite part came when I realized that none of these people pictured are even all that remotely famous, but the new photo arrangement is completely amazing, too.

A friend and reader chimes in: “I think getting Kidd Chris’ thoughts on the whole ordeal puts it over the top. There are just so many layers. It’s getting to the point where I no longer think, ‘Oh, the paper i once loved,’ and instead think ‘Well, this is pretty hilarious.’”

Bravo, Philly.com.

CBS 3 Fires Larry Mendte

Well, we all saw this coming: CBS 3 has released Larry Mendte from his contract. When Alycia Lane filed her lawsuit alleging sexism (and other -isms) at the station, it pretty much sealed Mendte’s fate.

(Lane’s lawyer says CBS 3 wouldn’t agree to change a court deadline, so the suit had to be filed last week. Convenient for the station!)

But that’s not all! According to the Inquirer, CBS 3’s internal investigation discovered a Keystroke logging program on one of the station’s computers. (Shouldn’t IT be looking for that kind of traffic going out over the network anyway?) Mendte’s lawyer didn’t say much of note, but did say, “I fully expect that Larry will resume his broadcasting career.”

And so, in just about six months, CBS 3 has gone from lead anchors of Alycia Lane and Larry Mendte to Susan Barnett and Chris May. Sounds about right to me.

CBS 3 fires Mendte [Inquirer]

Alycia Lane Finally Sues CBS 3

Hey, what do you know? Alycia Lane finally went and sued CBS 3, and it actually contains the phrase “the Prince Albert of Monaco Exploitation.” Oh, this is excellent.

Lane’s lawsuit against her employer alleges the station didn’t respond to complaints her private email had been viewed and also said the station treated female employees worse than its male ones. The suit also says co-anchor/alleged email snooper Larry Mendte was jealous of Lane’s higher salary (reportedly $800k vs. $700k) and her popularity.

Michael Klein writes:

Lane’s suit claims that a statement from Colleran that Mendte read on-air on Jan. 7 killed her career. It read in part: “After assessing the overall impact of a series of incidents resulting from judgments she has made, we have concluded that it would be impossible for Alycia to continue to report the news as she, herself, has become the focus of so many news stories.” It added, “We understand that Alycia expects to be fully vindicated in that proceeding” in New York.

The suit says the “clear meaning” was that Lane was “now unable to report the news for any news station anywhere in the world.”

Well, besides on UHF.

Alycia Lane sues CBS 3 [Inquirer]

Source: Mendte Read Lane’s Email

Everybody breathe, we’re going to be okay. Yes, sources tell the Inquirer federal authorities have concluded Larry Mendte accessed Alycia Lane’s email hundreds of times. Hundreds of times!

Michael Klein and John Shiffman also tell the story of how the FBI got involved: Somebody looked at Lane’s email at the CBS offices, and forgot to log out of alycia_baby@yahoo.com or whatever. The person who found the open account told Lane, and later somebody told the FBI — probably after realizing snooping in somebody else’s email is a crime! The Internet is serious business.

As you all know now, hilarity ensued.

The Associated Press talked with Lane’s lawyer who said whoever did this was probably just jealous of Alycia Lane: “There had been some jealousy by him over her popularity and ratings,” Paul Rosen said. “There was no question that she was rising faster than he was.” Alycia Lane, quickly eroding the public’s sympathy; she truly is the Terrell Owens of the local media. Paul Rosen would be Drew Rosenhaus, I suppose.”

The feds are still looking into the possibility Mendte shared information about Lane with the press. This story can only lead to one logical conclusion: Dan Gross being interviewed in a room with a single lightbulb overhead, refusing to divulge his sources for a story. It’s our own little Valerie Plame scandal! Only more important.