14 DAY TRIAL // Tony Trout, a former Greenville County Council member, has been sentenced to 366 days in prison for installing a spyware program on the computer of County Administrator Joe Kernell, and intercepting his personal emails. Trout claimed that he did it in order to prove that Kernell, his employee, was involved in illegal activities.
The FBI raided Trout's house last June and seized computer equipment after he posted Joe Kernell's emails on his personal website. The councilman said at the time that he had the right to monitor Kernell's activity on his work computer because he was his employee.
Trout was subsequently arrested in October for using social engineering to trick Kernell into installing the RemoteSpy software onto his computer, which was later used to spy on his personal communications. In April this year, he was found guilty by a jury on four counts of computer spying.
During his trial, the ex-councilman testified that, at the time of the incident, he was not aware of the federal laws forbidding such activities. He claimed that his intention was to expose Kernell, whom he thought to be involved in illegal and questionable activities.
At his sentencing, Trout admitted that what he did was illegal. "I'm guilty, and I'm sorry, and I was wrong. It's all because of me … nobody else but me," he told the judge, according to The Greenville News. Trout was not fined, but he lost the right to own his company called Pro-Teck Security Services.
Meanwhile, the federal judge who inspected Kernell's emails as evidence during Trout's trial made a note that the country administrator engaged in inappropriate communications and possibly illegal activities, which were in violation of the county's personnel policy.
"Don't take the law into your own hands. If you believe that someone is behaving illegally it's not your job to gather evidence yourself by breaking the law. If you really feel a crime is being committed, inform the authorities and ask them to look into it," advises Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.