Former Healdsburg school district I.T. Manager pleads to computer crimes
05/19/2016
Former Healdsburg school district I.T. Manager pleads to computer crimes
The Healdsburg Unified School District (HUSD) reported to the Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force and the California Attorney General’s Office, eCrime Unit, that an internal investigation by the Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE) revealed that an unknown suspect had accessed the HUSD’s computer network on multiple occasions over several months. The IT staff’s investigation found that an unidentified computer had accessed numerous email accounts to include the HUSD Superintendents’ as well as files on the Superintendent’s office desktop computer.
The inquiry by the SCOE IT staff was initiated after an email, complaining about the HUSD High School Principal, was sent to all HUSD employees and the HUSD Board of Directors. The email was sent from a staff member’s HUSD email account without that employee’s knowledge or consent and was signed “Anonymous teachers.”
The records obtained by the SCOE IT staff, which included IP addresses of the suspect computer, were provided to the NC3TF. An investigation by the NC3TF identified the suspect computer as belonging to the former HUSD IT Manager and his wife, a current HUSD employee. A search warrant was served on their residence and multiple computers and cell phones were seized. A search of the devices seized revealed evidence linking the 2 to the intrusions.
The case was filed in Sonoma County by the State Attorney General’s eCrime unit.
As part of a plea agreement charges were dismissed against Kestral Davis Montes and Francisco Davis pled guilty to 1 count of illegally accessing a computer system and agreed to pay $29,000.00 in restitution to the school district.