
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 1, 1995                   TAG: 9507030070
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RALEIGH, N.C.                                 LENGTH: Short

COMPUTER HACKER ACCEPTS PLEA BARGAIN

An infamous computer hacker arrested here after a nationwide hunt through cyberspace has reached a plea bargain with federal prosecutors, The News & Observer reported Saturday.

Kevin Mitnick, 31, was scheduled to go on trial July 10 on charges of computer fraud. The plea bargain would throw out all but one of 23 charges he faced and calls for no more than an eight-month prison sentence on the remaining charge, the Observer said citing a copy of the plea bargain that it obtained.

William Delahoyde, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, declined to comment.

Mitnick had been tracked down after he broke into a San Francisco-area computer network called the Well and began reading users' e-mail. He also broke into the system of computer security specialist Tsutomu Shimomura, who then canceled a vacation to help federal agents track him down.

According to the copy of the plea agreement signed last week, Mitnick, who has been held in North Carolina jails since his arrest, admits possessing 15 telephone numbers he cloned so he could burrow into computer systems.

The remaining 22 charges would be dismissed, but he could face prosecution in other districts - most likely in California on the probation violations.

by CNB