Reading Your Spouse's Email Could be a Crime

By Wendy Alton

If you haven’t been following the Oakland County, Michigan criminal case against Leon Walker, now is the time to do it.

I previously blogged about the criminal charges pending against Leon Walker: Reading your spouse’s emails: snooping or hacking? (http://tiny.cc/kmm4y). Leon Walker and his wife Clara Walker were living together, but going through a divorce. Leon Walker logged into Clara Walker’s Gmail account on her computer by guessing her password. While logged in, Leon Walker printed a number of emails between Clara Walker and a friend, and theses emails revealed that Clara Walker was having an affair with her second ex-husband. Leon Walker, her soon to be third ex-husband, printed these emails off and gave them to Clara Walker’s first ex-husband, who used the emails as a basis to file an emergency motion for custody of their child.

Leon Walker was charged with violating Michigan law MCL 752.795, which states that a person cannot “intentionally and without authorization” access a computer, computer program, computer network, or computer system, to “acquire, alter, damage, delete, or destroy property.” The same law prohibits spam and viruses. Despite the fact that they were married at the time he accessed her email, and despite the fact that the computer was purchased by him and her password was not always kept a secret, Prosecutor Jessica Cooper charged him with a felony that is normally reserved for serious hackers—and Leon Walker now faces a penalty of up to five years in prison.

Leon Walker appealed his charges to the Michigan Court of Appeals. On December 27, 2011, the Michigan Court of Appeals released its opinion, and upheld the charges against Leon Walker.

The Michigan Court of Appeals determined the following:

1) Leon Walker intentionally accessed the account by guessing her password, and his intention was also revealed by him printing emails and distributing them to a third party;
2) Leon Walker accessed the account without authorization because Clara Walker testified that she never shared her password with him, and he didn’t even use her computer;
3) By accessing Clara Walker’s Gmail account, Leon Walker did access a computer (Gmail email is stored on Gmail servers), did access a computer network (Gmail emails are sent to the user over the internet), did access a computer program (Gmail itself is a program), and did access a computer system (Gmail servers act as a computer system;
4) Leon Walker acquired the emails by viewing, printing and distributing them, which is essentially acquiring property of someone else.

The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the criminal charges against Leon Walker should stand, as his actions satisfy the elements of the criminal statute. The case is now sent back to Oakland County so that a trial date can be set. It is unknown if Leon Walker will appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court, and even if he does, even more unknown if the Michigan Supreme Court will hear the case.

What are the practical consequences of this case and this Michigan Court of Appeals ruling? Your email is absolutely private unless you share your password with someone else or authorize them to check your email. If you do not share your password or permit someone access, it is a crime for them to access your account without your permission. This is equally true for strangers as well as for spouses—there is no spousal exception.

If you are going through a divorce, it is best to leave your spouse’s email and facebook accounts alone. The Michigan Court of Appeals has made it very clear that unless permission is given, it is a crime. Oakland County has made it very clear that it will prosecute. It is likely that other counties will follow their lead.

Read the Michigan Court of Appeals case here: http://coa.courts.mi.gov/documents/opinions/final/coa/20111227_c304593_54_304593.opn.pdf.

Read the news articles here:

“E-mail snooper loses appellate bid” http://tiny.cc/ruy7u.

“Michigan man may face trial in computer hacking case” http://tiny.cc/jvlcr.

If you are interested in learning more about family law or divorce, or have a question about those issues, please call Wendy Alton at 248-380-9976 or email her at walton@fb-firm.com.

Parenting Time: Are Courts Biased?

by Wendy Alton

Parenting time is the legal term used in divorce for the specific schedule that each parent has with their children. Two recent studies conducted by Arizona State University raise some questions about whether the family courts are biased in their awards of parenting time.

I blogged last week about the parenting time schedule that the Wayne County Circuit (Family) Court recently implemented. Effective this year, parents that have a judgment or order that specifies “reasonable parenting time” will be bound by the court’s schedule, found here: Wayne County Circuit Court Co-Parenting Plan. Interestingly, the Co-Parenting Plan establishes parenting time plans time based upon the child’s age. Even a brief review of the Co-Parenting Plan reveals that in no way does it provide for equal time for both parents. The Co-Parenting Plan provides the non-custodial parent (usually dad) overnights on an every-other weekend basis, with one overnight each week.

However, the studies conducted and summarized here, Public Support Rising for Joint Custody, reveal that there is an incredible growing public support for equal time for both parents. Equal time was preferred in these studies even in high-conflict situations. The participants of the study made mock decisions as a judge in custody disputes, and overwhelmingly granted equal time to the mother and father. The studies reveal that the public believes that courts favor mom, and that the courts should instead be giving equal time with the children to both mom and dad.

The law in Michigan regarding parenting time states that “It is presumed to be in the best interests of a child for the child to have a strong relationship with both of his or her parents… parenting time shall be granted to a parent in a frequency, duration, and type reasonably calculated to promote a strong relationship.” MCL 722.27a. Many believe that this goes hand-in-hand with giving mom and dad equal time with the children. Many believe that the enforcement of cookie-cutter parenting time guidelines or even the Wayne County Co-Parenting Plan does not promote a strong relationship between the parents and their children.

It will be interesting to see how the courts respond to the growing public demand for equal parenting time, especially in light of recent parenting time guidelines that generally favor mom.

Lesson to learn? If you are going through a divorce and you are unsatisfied with the court’s parenting time plan, make sure that you or your attorney negotiate the specific time that you want time with your children. Agree on a schedule that works for the best of your own family.

If you are interested in learning more about divorce, or have a question about divorce, please call Wendy Alton at 248-380-9976 or email her at walton@fb-firm.com.

Korea DMA Agent Orange

by Jim Fausone
Veterans Disability Lawyer

We hear from veterans who served in Thailand, Korea, Japan, Philippines, etc., that claim to be exposed to Agent Orange. Boots on the ground in Vietnam results in presumed AO exposure. The evidence about certain Thailand bases is pretty solid. VA also recognizes spraying of AO around the Korean DMZ.

Under the final regulation published Jan. 25, 2011 in the Federal Register, VA will presume herbicide exposure for any veteran who served between April 1, 1968, and Aug. 31, 1971, in a unit determined by VA and the Department of Defense to have operated in an area in or near the Korean DMZ in which herbicides were applied. However, many SE Asia veterans exposed to AO at logistic depots, navy vessels, air transport do not get treated the same.

To read about the new regulations dealing with the Korean DMZ, see the following article:

http://durangoherald.com/article/20110227/COLUMNISTS17/702279993/-1/s

To learn more or to contact a Veterans disability lawyer, Veterans disability attorney, Veterans lawyer, or Veterans attorney call 1.800.693.4800 or visit Legalhelpforveterans.com

VA Health Care Report Card

by Jim Fausone
Veterans Disability Lawyer

VA runs the largest health care system in the world. Most of the time the VA provides excellent health care. VA issues an annual report card on its services. The latest 200 page document reports that last year there were 62,686,340 outpatient visits in VA. The average number of visits to a VA facility was 450,836. Total outpatient visits to a VA facility ranged from 113,184 (Sheridan, Wyoming) to 1,331,446 (Cleveland, Ohio). VA employed 12,462 full-time and 2,837 part-time physicians. Nationally, there were 2.8 staff physician per 1,000 unique patients. If you can make it past the first 80 pages of the report you can find VA facility specific information that may be helpful. VA certainly could make this report card more user friendly, don’t you think!

http://www1.va.gov/health/docs/HospitalReportCard2010.pdf


To learn more or to contact a Veterans disability lawyer, Veterans disability attorney, Veterans lawyer, or Veterans attorney call 1.800.693.4800 or visit Legalhelpforveterans.com

Planning Ahead Makes Holidays Special for Children of Divorce

by Wendy Alton

One of the most frequent questions & concerns I hear as a Michigan divorce lawyer is how to share time with the children around the holidays after a divorce. This can be one of the more difficult issues to work through, particularly because each parent wants to keep their holiday traditions alive, but will now need to share that time with the other parent.

There are no hard and fast rules in Michigan for sharing holidays after divorce. In fact, the courts generally encourage parents to come up with schedules that work best for them, and stick to those schedules. This is because each family has their own traditions, their own families, and often the parents can come up with a schedule that is far better for them than the court could ever impose.

In the absence of any kind of agreement between the parents, many courts do have parenting time guidelines that are published merely as “suggestions.” Each county differs, and the following represent some of the ideas or suggestions for how to share parenting time during the holidays.

• Macomb County: http://www.macombcountymi.gov/circuitcourt/friendofthecourt.htm:
o Dad: in odd years (2011, 2013, etc) has the children from 6pm on the last day of school for Christmas break through Christmas Eve at 9pm, at which time, Mom takes the children from Christmas Eve at 9pm until 7pm on the day before school begins. This would then reverse in even years.

• Livingston County: http://www.co.livingston.mi.us/friendofthecourt/pt4.htm:
o Alternate all holidays (parents decide who takes what holiday in what year)
o Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Years Eve, New Years are defined as 9am to 6pm

• Marquette County: http://www.co.marquette.mi.us/departments/friend_of_the_court/docs/ParentingTimeGuidelines/LOCAL.pdf:
o Dad: in odd years (2011, 2013, etc) has the children from 6pm on the last day of school for Christmas break through Christmas Day at 2pm. Mom has the children from Christmas Day at 2pm until 6pm on December 27th. Then the normal parenting time schedule resumes. This would then reverse in even years.

• Cass County: http://www.casscountymi.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=DMsKstaerpA%3D&tabid=92&mid=800:
o Dad: in odd years (2011, 2013, etc) has the children on Christmas Eve at 9am until Christmas morning at 9am. Mom would have Christmas Day from 9am until December 26th at 9am. Normal parenting time would resume after that. This would then reverse in even years.

The State of Michigan also has extensive parenting time guidelines found here: http://courts.michigan.gov/SCAO/services/focb/parentingtime/FOC_Forms/pt_guidelines.pdf. Regarding holiday parenting time, the State of Michigan’s suggestions are identical to those of Macomb County. Again, these are merely suggestions in absence of a formal agreement between parents.

While it is easy to get wrapped up in what holiday time you want or feel as though you deserve with your children during the holidays, it is always helpful to try to look at the holiday schedule from your child’s perspective. The holidays are a magical and special time—keeping this as the main focus during your discussions and negotiations about holiday schedules will keep you focused on what is going to best for your children.

Divorced parents can make the holidays special for children by creating a holiday schedule that best suits their family, sticking to it so that the children know what to expect, and then making their holiday time with the children magical and memorable for years to come.

If you are interested in learning more about divorce or family law, please call Wendy Alton at 248-380-9976 or email her at walton@fb-firm.com.

Female Veteran Suicide Crisis

by Jim Fausone, Veteran Attorney

The first large scale study of female veterans found that female veterans — age 18 to 34 — are three times as likely as their civilian peers to die by suicide. Veterans make up 20% of the people who commit suicide in the country. However veterans only make up 12 % of the population. Female veterans are particularly vulnerable and everyone needs to be aware of this crisis and respond accordingly. How will VA, VSOs and health care providers respond?

Read more at: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/04/131797071/study-female-vets-especially-vulnerable-to-suicide