Sentencing of Computer Hacker Mitnick Delayed Before New Trial Opens

   Oct. 07, 1996 

   LOS  ANGELES  (AP)  -  A  federal judge Monday postponed sentencing of
   hacker  Kevin  Mitnick  in  a cellular phone fraud case, in advance of
   another  case  in  which the notorious computer outlaw is charged with
   dozens more fraud counts.

   Mitnick,  33,  pleaded guilty in April to one count of fraud in a 1995
   North  Carolina  case  for  using 15 stolen phone numbers to dial into
   computer databases.

   Mitnick  was  arrested in February 1995 in Raleigh, N.C., following an
   investigation and cross-country manhunt, with a trap sprung by Tsutomo
   Shimomura, an expert in computer security.

   U.S.  District  Judge  Mariana  Pfaelzer  said  she  will  set  a  new
   sentencing  date,  and a trial date on the new charges for Mitnick and
   his co-defendant on Nov. 4.

   Mitnick has also admitted violating probation for a 1988 conviction in
   Los Angeles for breaking into computers at Digital Equipment Corp.

   He  was  to  have  been  sentenced Monday in those cases. But that was
   postponed  because  of  the  comprehensive new charges and because his
   previous lawyer was removed over a conflict of interest.

   That  lawyer,  Richard  Sherman,  will represent a co-defendant in the
   case:  Lewis  DePayne,  who is accused in the new indictment of aiding
   and abetting Mitnick's crimes.

   DePayne,  who  hired  Sherman after federal investigators searched his
   home and workplace, is free on $100,000 bond.

   Mitnick pleaded innocent on Oct. 1 to charges he damaged computers and
   stole  millions  of  dollars  in  software  from  high-tech companies,
   damaging  University of Southern California computers and using stolen
   computer passwords.

   Mitnick's new lawyer is Donald C. Randolph.

   Last  week, Mitnick pleaded innocent to 25 counts of computer and wire
   fraud,  possessing  unlawful  access  devices,  damaging computers and
   intercepting electronic messages.

   The  indictment  follows  an investigation by a national task force of
   FBI,  NASA  and  federal  prosecutor  high-tech  experts. The affected
   companies are Novell, Motorola, Nokia, Fujitsu and NEC.

   The  prosecutor,  Assistant  U.S.  Attorney  David Schindler, has said
   Mitnick  would  be  sentenced  to  "multiple  years"  if convicted. He
   declined  to  be more specific, saying computer fraud is a new area of
   the law.