Man Accused of Aiding Hacker Surrenders, Is Released on Bond

A Bay Area executive indicted on charges of helping notorious hacker Kevin Mitnick in a computer crime spree surrendered in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Friday and was released on $100,000 bond.

Lewis DePayne, a former Burbank and Pasadena resident, was described by his attorney as an “innocent, tax-paying” man who was accused only because of his longtime friendship with Mitnick.

DePayne, a computer systems manager for a large Newark, Calif., auto parts importing firm, is accused of helping Mitnick steal millions of dollars in software through a complex computer hacking scheme from June 1992 to February 1995.

The indictment accuses Mitnick, 33, of breaking into the systems of major software and communications companies from the Silicon Valley to Finland and transferring software into computers at the University of Southern California via the Internet. All of the alleged crimes took place while Mitnick was a fugitive from federal law enforcement authorities.

While many of Mitnick’s actions have been well documented over the last two years in at least three books, DePayne is relatively unknown. In a book written by San Diego-based supercomputer programmer Tsutomu Shimomura, who helped catch Mitnick in 1995, DePayne is merely mentioned as a friend of the former fugitive.

DePayne’s only known previous brush with computer crime was a 1981 plea of no contest to charges that he broke into the computer systems of two San Francisco-based telecommunications companies.

DePayne’s lawyer, Richard Sherman, said the crimes were misdemeanors that had been expunged from DePayne’s record.

DePayne works as a computer systems manager at World Pac, a company with 550 employees that imports and distributes automobile parts. Steven Murphy, executive vice president at the firm, declined to comment about DePayne.

According to the indictment, DePayne provided Mitnick with cellular telephones, helped Mitnick “clone” cell phones by programming them with stolen serial numbers, maintained an Internet account that Mitnick used to transfer some of the stolen software and posed as an employee of a company Mitnick targeted for fraud during a telephone call. He is also alleged to have attempted to mail computer tapes containing stolen software to a hotel in Compton.

Specific alleged criminal actions by DePayne are detailed in only one count of the indictment: He is said to have made a telephone call from Los Angeles on May 9, 1994, to an office of the Finnish cellular phone maker Nokia Mobile Phones Ltd. in Largo, Fla.

“What crime was he supposed to have aided or abetted?” said Sherman, his attorney. “Their quote-unquote evidence must be severely limited. There’s only one conversation that Lewis is supposed to be involved in, and there was no completed crime.”

The lawyer noted that the indictment contains no charges that Mitnick or DePayne profited from any sales of the software that they allegedly stole.

Complicating the case is the fact that Sherman represents Mitnick on the charges brought against him in North Carolina, where he was captured in February 1995 after a two-year manhunt.

Observers such as author Jonathan Littman, who has written a book about Mitnick, suggested Friday that court rules may block Sherman from representing both men at the same time.

In an interview, Littman said he believes the indictment of DePayne was merely a tactic to force Sherman to drop Mitnick as a client.

“This indictment is really about the government not wanting Mitnick to get adequate legal counsel,” Littman said. “Why? Because Sherman is a fighter.”

Assistant U.S. Attys. Christopher Painter and David J. Schindler denied the suggestion.

DePayne has lashed out at Schindler in the past.

In a computer message that appeared on the Internet July 19, DePayne called Schindler a “moron.” He added: “David Schindler is nothing more than a little man with a big bark. . . . Show him your teeth and he cowers.”

Schindler said the message “really made my day,” and he termed the accusations about his fears of Sherman “nonsense.”

Said Sherman about the prosectors: “Follow this case to the end, and you’ll be surprised to discover who the bad guys are and who the good guys are.”

Times staff writer John Johnson contributed to this story.