Michigan guy probes wife's email.

[dove-7]

I have a question. Seeing that you Michigan cats have better access to the local news there, I'm trying to find out if a Pontiac, Mi. man had probed his wife's email before or after their divorce? This news has gotten attention nationwide, but each report that I've read online is vague or give different details. The divorce point is one of them.

[spiritofdetroit]

not yet divorced, though i believe in the midst of one. still lived together, shared computer, still married.

[gazhekwe]

She used this as part of her divorce petition, I believe.

We had a thread going on this:

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthread.php?t=8313

[dove-7]

O.k. I asked because I was debating with someone earlier about this topic and they're telling me that the couple was already divorced before the email probe and there was no evidence/proof of an affair. Very weird because that was the primary issue next to him probing. I was looking for a link to back this or the other person's point up. I did read where her lawyer said that they were filling for a divorce before the probing. But people will say all types of things to cover their ass.

[Jimaz]

From The Detroit News: Public is reading overkill in e-mail case

The story of the Rochester Hills man who faces five-year felony charges because he tapped into his then-wife's e-mail has seized the public imagination, making appearances everywhere from Twitter to Gawker to CNN.

[Searay215]

This is such a BS prosecution ……Really for reading an email of his soon to be ex-wife? What if he read it and found out that she was going to blow up a building, I’ll bet he would be a hero in the eyes of the law. Maybe that should be his defense, that he thought she was into some underground subversive organization and he was going to expose it….

[jerrytimes]

Email isn't private. It's on a public network and its a joke if this guy goes to jail.

[sumas]

my husband and I share a computer, he often reads my e mail. Doesn't bother me but do tease him that it is like opening mail not addressed to him. I open his email to check if his relatives have contacted him. He is a very lazy corresponent so I bug him to write.

In their case no doubt he was looking for anything to use as amunition in the divorce.

Just for comparison I am curious is this the same penalties that applied to opening others US postal mail?

[mikefmich]

Just for comparison I am curious is this the same penalties that applied to opening others US postal mail?

It generally is not criminal on any level to open someones mail that came to you via legal channels, i.e. you didn't steal the mail from elsewhere.

[Jimaz]

E.g., it's often a secretary's job to open her boss's mail.

If anyone really wants email privacy, they should be using encryption anyway -- and making their passwords inaccessible.