LOS ANGELES, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Two Los Angeles traffic engineers have been charged with using their skills to cause massive traffic jams.
Kartik Patel and Gabriel Murillo pleaded not guilty to felony charges on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Investigators say that Patel and Murillo were able to get into the system that controls traffic lights from a laptop in August. At the time, union employees had been shut out of the system because of the threat that they would disrupt traffic during a contract dispute.
Patel and Murillo allegedly targeted busy intersections and reprogrammed the lights so that the red signal was long in the direction with the most traffic. They also blocked access to the lights so that the change remained in place for several days.
Murillo helped design the computer system, while Patel has a national reputation as a traffic engineer.
Both men deny the charges. His lawyer says Murillo was on paternity leave and did not realize he was not allowed into the system.
