The Canadian computer hacker who formerly testified that he was working as a law enforcement agent now says he did that under pressure from defense attorneys, in a child porn case which cost an Orange County judge his bench career last year.
Brad Willman had hacked into Superior Court Judge Ronald Kline's computers at home and in court, computers where investigators later found over 1,500 child porn images and the judge's diaries, but Willman now says he wasn't working for any law enforcement agency, according to the Modesto Bee.
"All such statements that I was working for law enforcement, either directly, or indirectly through an Internet watchdog group, when I accessed computers and retrieved material are not true," Willman said a statement to prosecutors obtained by the Bee. "I made those statements during the deposition because I felt pressured by defense counsel and wanted to get off the stand during a lengthy deposition hearing."
A federal judge ruled in March that Willman was likely working as a law enforcement agent, though police said he was only an anonymous tipster and not an actual informant. The federal judge is considering whether to suppress some of the key evidence against Kline because it came out of Willman's hacking.
Willman's hack involved a program he created to track another computer's online activity, and he sent what he learned about Kline's computers to an online watchdog group that tipped off police in Irvine. Kline has pleaded not guilty to charges of possessing child porn and molesting a teenage boy in the 1970s. His arrest occurred as he was preparing his re-election campaign, a campaign he was forced to give up under pressure.
