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Man pleads guilty to hacking SLC PD website

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SALT LAKE CITY — Court records filed in federal court said an Ohio man, accused of being a member of the hacker collective known as Anonymous, has pleaded guilty to hacking the websites of the Salt Lake City Police Department and the Utah Chiefs of Police Association.

A statement in advance of a plea of guilty filed in U.S. District Court and obtained by FOX 13 reveals that John Anthony Borell III pleaded guilty in April to hacking the websites. Borell also admitted to hacking the websites of the Syracuse, N.Y. Police Department; the city of Springfield, Mo.; and the Los Angeles County Police Canine Association.

“I again advertised my success in compromising the website’s security and again jeopardized the security of the personal information of many people, most of whom worked in law enforcement,” Borell’s guilty plea to hacking the Salt Lake City Police Department website reads.

Federal prosecutors accused the 22-year-old Ohio man of being the Internet hacker known as “ItsKahuna,” who claimed responsibility to the slcpd.org hack in an interview with FOX 13.

ItsKahuna, who claimed to be a part of Anonymous, claimed to have hacked the websites in Utah to express displeasure over a bill being run by Sen. Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City, that would have made possessing graffiti tools a potential crime. The bill was ultimately defeated in the Utah State Legislature.

Borell faces up to three years in prison when he is sentenced in August.