Friends Lend Infamous Hacker Air Support

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A plane towing a “Free Kevin Mitnick” banner circled downtown Los Angeles last week, buzzing high over the jail that still houses the infamous computer hacker.

The aerial stunt was one of several protests staged around the country Friday by Mitnick’s tireless supporters, who continue to decry his treatment even though he pleaded guilty to various hacking charges three months ago.

The event was organized by 2600, a pro-hacker magazine, which encouraged Mitnick backers to gather at federal courthouses in 15 cities.

A handful of Mitnick supporters gathered at the Los Angeles courthouse where in March he entered a guilty plea and agreed to a sentence that will keep him in jail roughly one more year.

Mitnick will make perhaps his final courthouse appearance on June 14, when a federal judge is expected to rule on how much money the San Fernando Valley native will have to pay companies he stole software from during a two-year hacking spree in the early 1990s.

Law enforcement officials said it’s unlikely Mitnick saw the plane. But a few blocks away, federal prosecutors watched the winged protest from their 11th-floor offices.

“I was laughing,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. David Schindler, lead prosecutor in the Mitnick case.