Former State Court IT Administrator Pleads Guilty To Stealing Computer Code

BIRMINGHAM – The former computer systems administrator for the Alabama court system pleaded guilty this week in federal court in Montgomery to stealing court system computer code, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Anderson and Alabama Department of Public Safety Director Hugh B. McCall.

DAVID MICHAEL CARROLL, 59, who retired as director of Information Systems for the Alabama Administrative Office of the Courts in June 2007, entered his plea Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Wallace Capel Jr. to one count of being a state government employee who stole property worth at least $5,000 from a program that received $10,000 or more in federal funds annually. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama prosecuted the case after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama recused itself. Carroll’s sentencing has not been set.

Carroll’s co-defendant in the case, JILL HAWTHORNE, 36, a former database administrator for AOC, pleaded guilty earlier this year to aiding and abetting access to a protected law enforcement database. Her sentencing is scheduled June 14.

According to their plea agreements with the government, Carroll and Hawthorne stole computer code from AOC’s county court records database, known as Namemaster, in November 2007 while Carroll was doing contract work for the Madison County Circuit Court. Hawthorne was still employed with AOC at that time. Carroll and Hawthorne transferred the computer code and related information to an Orlando-based computer software development company, CyberBest Technology. Carroll had a working relationship with CyberBest management at the time, according to his plea agreement.

U.S. Secret Service and the Alabama Department of Public Safety investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Estes is prosecuting the case.