DETROIT, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- A Michigan man charged with hacking into his ex-wife's e-mail told a jury he never tried to access the police database as prosecutors alleged.
Leon Walker, 22, was charged under an anti-hacking law with getting his former spouse's password to her e-mail account, then reading her e-mail to determine if she were seeing a man he said he thought posed a threat to their child, The Detroit News reported Tuesday. A few months after being charged, the Oakland County, Mich., prosecutors office filed a similar acts motion against Walker after he allegedly asked about a database restricted to official police business.
Prosecutors said they believe the requests support their allegations that Walker habitually accessed others' information without permission.
Walker said his actions were legal and that he was conducting background work for a Freedom of Information Act request.
He appeared Monday before Oakland Circuit Judge Martha Anderson for a pretrial conference.
"I was planning on filing a Freedom of Information request to find out how many other cases of spouses or ex-spouses who complained about their husband or wife going into their e-mail without permission resulted in criminal charges," Walker told reporters after the hearing. "I never tried to hack into anything."
The judge ruled Walker will go to trial April 11.
