A Michigan man faces prison time for accessing a laptop at his home and reading his wife's email.
Leon Walker, 33, was charged with a felony after accessing his wife Clara Walker's email account and discovering she was having an affair, reported the Detroit Free Press.
Upon discovering that his wife was communicating with her second husband, who had previously been arrested for beating her in front of her son, Leon Walker turned the emails over to Clara Walker's first husband, the child's father.
This led to Leon Walker being charged with hacking—a law typically used for breaking into highly sensitive government or business computers or systems, the newspaper reported.
"I have to ask," Walker’s attorney Leon Weiss told the paper, "Don't the prosecutors have more important things to do with their time?"
Apparently not.
Oakland County prosecutor Jessica Cooper described Walker as a "hacker" who used his skills as a computer technician to break into his soon-to-be ex-wife's email.
Walker stated he was only trying to protect the child.
"I was doing what I had to do," he said. "We're talking about putting a child in danger."
Legal experts believe the case could have significant implications for divorce cases, as 45 percent involve some form of snooping on private accounts, the paper noted.
"It's going to be interesting because there are no clear legal answers here," one lawyer commented.
