Legal issues involved in accessing others email

[Diana Stagg]

I live in GA. Last week when in UT, I stopped by my friends home when he was not there. His roommate let me in the house to wait. The computer was on. I clicked on AOL and proceeded to read my friends email email. As I suspected,I discovered the friend to be involved with some illicit activities. I forwarded a couple of email messages to my home computer and to another party that would be interested. I accidently erased an email containing some important information. Can my friend (now enemy) do something to me legally. He is threatening me via email now. I am back in GA and he is in UT. I do feel badly because I did not intend to erase anything. If I did, I would have erased a LOT of emails! This one didn't have anything to do with me! Help!!!(a woman that has been two-timed!)

 

[lawrat]

Well, you are in deep trouble. You invaded your friend's privacy by reading those emails as well as using his property without his permission.

A lot can be done to you legally but if you think he is serious about pressing charges, may I suggest you speak with an attorney in your state who deals with internet criminal law like this or has experience enough to compare it with existing laws on the books to see generally what can happen. http://www.attorneypages.com or your state bar association.

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I am a law school graduate. What I offer is mere information, not to be construed as forming an attorney client relationship.