Felix Roque, mayor of the Hudson County town of West New York, NJ, and his son Joseph Roque were arrested May 24, 2012, for gaining unauthorized access to computers in furtherance of causing damage to protected computers, causing damage to protected computers, and conspiracy to commit those crimes. The city of West New York, NJ, is directly across the Hudson River from midtown Manhattan.
According to the FBI, in early February 2012, a Hudson County resident and public official anonymously created and moderated the Recall Roque Website, and posted commentary and criticism of the mayor and his administration. On Feb. 6, Mayor Roque and his son allegedly conspired to hack into the site and take it down, as well as to identify, intimidate and harass anyone they discovered was involved with it.
By late afternoon on Feb. 8, 2012, Joseph Roque had successfully hacked into various online accounts used in connection with the recall Website and used that access to disable it, authorities said.
“In this case, the elected leader of West New York and his son allegedly hacked into computers to intimidate constituents who were simply using the Internet to exercise their constitutional rights to criticize the government,” U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said in a statement. “We will continue to investigate and prosecute those who illegally hack into computers and disable Websites with the goal of suppressing the exercise of that right.”
According to the criminal complaint, the younger Roque contacted domain registrar Go Daddy and reset the password of the site’s creator. Then on Feb. 8, he allegedly cancelled the domain name.
The elder Roque is accused of using email messages he had access to in order to identify the people behind the site and allegedly contacting them in a campaign of harassment and intimidation. In addition, he is accused in the complaint of asking other public officials to work with him to retaliate against them.
The conspiracy charge and the charge of gaining unauthorized access to a computer in furtherance of causing damage to protected computers are each punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The charge of causing damage to protected computers carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
To read the original eWeek article, click here: N.J. Mayor, Son Arrested For Hacking Political Rival’s Website
