PhillyGossip

U.S. Attorney to announce charge against Larry Mendte at 1 PM

Dan Gross' blog, PhillyGossip, covers the behavior and misbehavior of celebrities both local and Hollywood. His Dan About Town column runs Mondays through Thursdays in the Daily News.

35 comments

U.S. Attorney to announce charge against Larry Mendte at 1 PM

POSTED: Monday, July 21, 2008, 11:09 AM

Dan Gross

Filed Under: Alycia Lane | Breaking News

Acting U.S. Attorney Laurie Magid is expected to announce at 1 p.m. that former CBS 3 anchor Larry Mendte has be charged by information with one count of unauthorized access to a computer system, related to the federal investigation of whether Mendte hacked the private e-mails of former colleague Alycia Lane. Legal community sources tell us that when one is charged by information, rather than indictment, it typically signals a plea or sentencing agreement has been reached. Neither Patty Hartman, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office or Mendte's lawyer Michael Schwartz immediately returned calls for comment this morning.

UPDATE: Read the full story from Kitty Caparella in today's paper.

35 comments

Comments (35)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:10 PM, 07/21/2008

I never liked him. He's done good things in the community, but only because it would improve his image. He came across as sneaky and full of himself. His snarky comments (meant as some sort of humor)'on-air' really bothered me. Good Riddance to bad rubbish. I'm sure he's continuing his support for all those charities (yeah, right).

— paul66

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:11 PM, 07/21/2008

who has not made mistakes the only difference is that none of your personal or professional lives are under a media microscope.

— smokeykittie

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:12 PM, 07/21/2008

yo Jayd...what the heck are you talking about? 'then he will deal with the conciseness' What does that mean????? learn the language

— paul66

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0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:16 PM, 07/21/2008

Dawn I know a good divorce attorney. I hope your assets are protected.

— PhillyChitChat

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:17 PM, 07/21/2008

One mistake?? Ha. This guy repeatedly accessed her email and then fed information to the press to destroy her career. Even as he watched his co-worker's career being destroyed, he continued his activities. That's far from a simple mistake. The guy couldn't compete honestly so he waged a campaign to destroy her reputation and got his company into a costly lawsuit. He's done. He'll lose a civil case that may cost him hundreds of millions. He should definately do time for the immense damage he did to Lane, CBS, and the news industry in general. Can you get any more self centered than to destroy someone's career and the reputation of your employer to advance your own career? There is zero chance that he didn't understand that what he was doing was illegal and extremely risky. He didn't care about anybody but himself.

— MikeP

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0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:02 PM, 07/21/2008

Hey Dan - so Larry tipped you off this whole time... what does that mean for you, buddy?

— frankatlasalle

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:29 PM, 07/21/2008

Dan, what's the story here? Are you a cooperating witness and reporting on the story at the same time? Aren't there rules about such conflicts in your line of work? Time to come clean.

— larryork

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:37 PM, 07/21/2008

OK accessing her email accts 500+ times is not just a simple mistake and yes he is looking at huge lawsuits both against him personally and CBS. Gee, I wonder if he will leak THAT info?? Her career suffered a lot of damage due to his illegal actions and she should be compensated acordingly. It's Christmas in July for Ms. Lane and WHAT a gift.

— JTG