Ex-State Dept. staffer peeked at celebs' passport apps, feds say

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(07-21) 07:24 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A former longtime U.S. State Department employee in San Francisco has been charged in federal court with illegally accessing government computers to peek at - and sometimes print out - passport applications of more than 100 celebrities, court records show.

Richard G. Macias, a 24-year passport agency employee until his retirement in May, was charged in U.S. District Court in San Francisco with three misdemeanor counts of exceeding authorized computer access. He was accused in a document known as an information, which in federal court typically signals that a defendant intends to plead guilty to at least one charge.

In an interview today, Macias, 60, of El Cerrito confirmed that he intended to enter a guilty plea but insisted that his viewing of the applications was related to his work. He declined to name the celebrities involved "for obvious reasons."

"I think they exaggerated some of it," Macias said of investigators, adding he did not profit from anything he may have done.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/21/BAL71KDBLR.DTL

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So when will there be news "TSA agents peeked at our bodies through Michael Chertoff's porno scanners" or "FBI illegally wiretapped innocent Americans" yet the government will leap on any of its own who peeks at Britney Spears's passport?

[OnyxCollie]

1. K&R. nt