Steubenville Gang-Rape Hacker Pleads Guilty

By: WTVQ Web Desk

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) -Deric Lostutter, the man accused of hacking into computers to draw attention to a 2012 rape case in Steubenville, Ohio, appeared in federal court Wednesday morning with his attorney, Frederic Jennings, where he pleaded guilty.

The case involved a teenage girl, 16, and high school football players.

As part of the plea deal, Lostutter admits he helped hack a Steubenville High School athletics website to harass and intimidate people and for his own online publicity.  He also admits he lied to an FBI agent.

“We wanted to stand up for a girl who had no voice and we went about it the wrong way,” Lostutter said to the judge in federal court.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says by the time Lostutter and his co-defendant Noah McHugh, hacked the site two players had already been arrested.  It also says the hack provided no new information to the investigation.

If I remember correctly, and that cannot be assumed, it was the cover-up that he exposed, not the crime.
    School Officials Charged in Cover-up of Steubenville Football Player's Rapes

Lostutter, who formerly lived in Winchester and was known as “KYAnonymous” on Facebook and Twitter, was indicted in the summer on hacking charges.  He formally pleaded not guilty to those charges back in September.

Lostutter faces up to ten years in prison and $250,000 in fines.  He remains free pending sentencing in March.

McHugh already pleaded guilty for helping hack the online account.  He is scheduled to be sentenced in December.

Anonymous Hacker Faces 16 Years in Prison, While Steubenville Rapists Walk Free

This guy is a hero, not a criminal. Steubenville is like the Catholic Church covering up the child sex abuse of priests.

Why is it wrong to expose that?

© KYAnonymous / Facebook

An Anonymous hacker who helped expose the gang rape of a teenage girl in Steubenville, Ohio, is facing up to 16 years in prison, but her attackers are already roaming free.

Deric Lostutter pled not guilty to four felony counts of hacking on Wednesday, with three covered under the Reagan-era Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

It’s the same law used to go after Reddit founder Aaron Swartz for downloading academic papers. Swartz later committed suicide at age 26.

Lostutter and his defense team accused the judge of seeking to make an example of the white hat activist.

He hacked the high school’s football sports fan site Roll Red Roll and found evidence of the 2012 rape and subsequent boasting by the perpetrators who shared footage with friends.

"You get 16 years for forcibly entering your way into a computer, but you get one year for forcibly entering your way into a woman," Lostutter said. "I think that's the precedent the government is setting here."

I'm a little confused here; why is it against the law to hack a public web site? Are there national security issues at stake? Does Homeland Security hide classified files on Roll Red Roll?

It's a bloody football team! He didn't steal any money or abuse anyone except criminals and those who protected them. Why is it a crime to expose a crime? Is that why the government is so determined to stop the hacking?

At a time when the US is facing increased criticism over its failure to adequately sentence rapists, particularly in light of the release of Stanford rapist Brock Turner, Lostutter’s potential punishment is at odds with more violent and damaging crimes.

Two of the Steubenville rapists, Trent Mays and Malik Richmond, were sentenced to serve time in juvenile detention for rape and kidnapping.

Serving just one year, Richmond was back to playing on the football team a few months after his release.

Mays received a longer, two-year sentence for distributing nude images of a minor.

The self-proclaimed “rape crew” dragged the unconscious victim from party to party and later shared videos and photographs of the assaults.

In the videos retrieved by Anonymous, athlete Michael Nodianos described the unconscious teenager as being “deader than Trayvon Martin,” as well as comparing her to JFK, OJ’s wife, and dead toddler Caylee Anthony.

Nodianos also tweeted, “Some people deserve to be peed on,” on the night of the rape.

“She is so raped,” he said.

When the young woman tried to press charges, she was dismissed and her character attacked by the football-crazy town.

Local blogger Alexandria Goddard was able to take screen grabs of the athlete’s tweets soon after the rape occurred.

Anonymous then disclosed more evidence and the disturbing video.

  video 4:08

The Roll Red Roll site was hacked with a video from Anonymous which showed evidence of the rape and threatened to disclose details of the school faculty members and parents involved in covering up the rape if those who were responsible didn’t come forward and apologize.

The video named a number of the footballers involved in the assault.

Lostutter accused the town of a cover-up between the football team and law enforcement.

One of the homes where the girl was assaulted allegedly belonged to the prosecutor, who has a son on both the football and wrestling teams and had allegedly pressured the victim and her family not to press charges.

Following the conviction of Richmond and Mays, a grand jury indicted four school officials over the scandal, with half of the charges related to another rape of a 14-year-old girl in April 2012.

In the Nodianos video, he referred to an earlier rape at “Palooza,” a nickname for the football coach’s home. The 14-year-old girl said she drank from a red cup and became so intoxicated she couldn’t stop the assault.

In 2015, the school’s technology director William Rhinaman pled guilty to deleting files related to the rape, Refinery 29 reports.

Lostutter’s previous hackings have included attacks on Hunter Moore, the man behind revenge porn, and the hate group the Westboro Baptist Church.

His trial is scheduled to start on November 8.