Heckenkamp Trial Delayed
Source: Security Focus
The trial of accused eBay hacker Jerome Heckenkamp has been postponed while prosecutors prepare a new indictment against the 22-year-old computer whiz, following a motion by Heckenkamp's defense attorney to dismiss the old one on the grounds that it was too vague.
Heckenkamp was scheduled to begin trial in San Jose, Calif. on March 19th on charges that he defaced online auction site eBay under the hacker handle MagicFX. He's also charged with penetrating computers belonging to Lycos, Exodus Communications, Juniper Networks, E-Trade Group and Cygnus Support Solutions.
All the cybercrimes allegedly took place in 1999, while the former child prodigy was a teenage graduate student at the University of Wisconsin. Heckenkamp has repeatedly said he's innocent on all counts.
Despite the long list of alleged victims, in a motion filed last week defense attorney Jennifer Granick charged that the indictment was a little fuzzy on the details.
"The indictment had the approximate date and who owned the computer, but it didn't say which computer he allegedly got into," says Granick. "It wasn't an academic question... You're entitled to know exactly the charges against you so you can put on a defense."
