Hacker Pleads Not Guilty to Computer Crime Spree

Convicted computer hacker Kevin Mitnick and a man investigators say was his accomplice in a computer crime scheme were arraigned Monday on 25 counts of computer fraud and other charges stemming from a two-year “hacking spree.”

Mitnick and his longtime friend, Lewis DePayne, both pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to charges that they engineered a complex computer hacking scheme that allegedly stole millions of dollars in software from computer companies from the Silicon Valley to Finland.

Prosecutors also allege that the famed hacker used the Internet to transfer stolen material to computers at USC. The offenses were committed between June 1992 and February 1995.

Although the 33-year-old Mitnick remains in custody, 36-year-old DePayne was released on his own recognizance after posting a $100,000 bond last week.

After leading federal investigators on a cross-country chase and becoming a hero in the world of hackers, Mitnick was nabbed in February of last year in Raleigh, N.C. Mitnick’s legend started when, as a student at James Monroe High School in North Hills, he broke into the Los Angeles Unified School District’s main computers. Since then, at least three books and hundreds of stories have detailed his obsession and expertise with computers.

On Monday Mitnick also got a new attorney--Donald C. Randolph of Santa Monica--because his previous lawyer was also defending DePayne. Judge Mariana Pfaelzer said it was a conflict of interest for Richard Sherman to represent both men.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Christopher Painter said Mitnick was also scheduled to be sentenced Monday on charges that he violated terms of his probation from an earlier computer fraud conviction in 1989, but with the change of attorneys, the judge granted a continuance to allow Randolph time to study case files.

Attorneys for DePayne maintain that the Newark, Calif., computer systems manager has been unfairly singled out by prosecutors simply because he and Mitnick have been friends since they were teenagers. But authorities allege that Mitnick transferred stolen software into an Internet account hooked up by DePayne, and that DePayne supplied Mitnick with cellular phones and posed as an employee of a company Mitnick tried to defraud.