Accused PAX Breach Thief Agrees to Appear in Court

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Accused PAX Breach Thief Agrees to Appear in Court



The man accused of trying to steal the code for Atomic Games' Breach from the PAX East show floor contacted the authorities to arrange a new court date after failing to appear for arraignment earlier this week.

It's recap time, everybody! A 20-year-old gamer by the name of Justin May was arrested at PAX East '10 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99537-Gamer-Tries-to-Steal-Breach-Code-at-PAX-East-Gets-Arrested] after allegedly trying to steal the code for Atomic Games' Breach from the show floor. Bad enough, right?

Well, after posting a $200 bail, May failed to show up for his arraignment [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99555-Suspected-PAX-Breach-Code-Thief-Goes-Fugitive] on Tuesday, March 30th. A warrant was issued for his arrest, leading many to speculate that he'd skipped out entirely, trying to avoid the long arm of the law.

Not so much, really. Modern Warfare 2 [http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/01/alleged-pax-east-breach-thief-agrees-to-appear-may-19-in-mass/].

Suffolk Country District Attorney Press Secretary Jake Wark told Joystiq that May wouldn't face any additional charges for missing out on his first court date.

"No, no additional charges at this point. He actually contacted the court upon learning of the default warrant and made arrangements to postpone the court date. Given that he and his whereabouts are known to authorities, that he has no criminal record, and that he affirmatively contacted the court, his request was granted. At the end of the day here, we aren't exactly dealing with John Dillinger, you know?"

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Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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Well. Lets hope he keeps it. Wont be so forgiving next time...
 

Regiment

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Nov 9, 2009
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Somehow I get the idea he isn't taking this seriously. The warrant's online. It has the value of the property stolen listed as $6000000. Twice. Now, I don't know about him, but if I was arrested for stealing twelve MILLION dollars worth of stuff, I'd be pretty panicked about now.
 
Apr 28, 2008
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Ok, so I guess I was wrong...

Damn...

Ah well, at least he contacted the court.
 

FungiGamer

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Apr 23, 2008
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"Suffolk Country District Attorney Press Secretary Jake Wark told Joystiq that May wouldn't face any additional charges for missing out on his first court date." April Fool's right? They're not seriously letting him miss a serious court date just so he could play MW2, right?
 

HardRockSamurai

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May 28, 2008
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I honestly hope they go easy on him. I'd hate to see someone go to jail for something like this (even if he is an idiot)...
sirdanrhodes said:
If for some reason he gets arrested, do you think he can smuggle in MW2 to jail?
Probably not. Also, I highly doubt that anyone would want to smuggle a game whose main character's name is "Soap" into jail...
 

Formica Archonis

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Nov 13, 2009
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FungiGamer said:
"Suffolk Country District Attorney Press Secretary Jake Wark told Joystiq that May wouldn't face any additional charges for missing out on his first court date." April Fool's right? They're not seriously letting him miss a serious court date just so he could play MW2, right?
I guess they figure it ain't worth the extra paperwork to toss a "he's a moron" charge on the pile and then have to have it argued in court. But if he screws up again, someone's gonna get severely pissed and start getting out books to throw. THEN you'll see a charge for this little "mistake".
 

uppitycracker

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Oct 9, 2008
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HardRockSamurai said:
I honestly hope they go easy on him. I'd hate to see someone go to jail for something like this (even if he is an idiot)...
sirdanrhodes said:
If for some reason he gets arrested, do you think he can smuggle in MW2 to jail?
Probably not. Also, I highly doubt that anyone would want to smuggle a game whose main character's name is "Soap" into jail...
he'll prolly just get probation and have to pay some fines, maybe some community service. especially since he doesn't already have a record.
 

Strategia

za Rodina, tovarishchii
Mar 21, 2008
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He was playing MW2? And he tried to steal something? Dammit, now they have proof games turn people into criminals =P
 

Deathfish15

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Nov 7, 2006
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What the fuck? (ya, sorry for the language).

This guy steals (or attempted to and got caught) a product that could hold a potential value in the millions of dollars and they let him go on a $200 bail?! And what's worse is when he skips out on a court date, the law just says "oh well, he promised to be back in later" and lets him off with less than a slap on the wrist instead of arresting him as they should?!


Seriously, if someone goes into a Best Buy and steals a $600 LCD Sony TV, they'd go to jail and then if they do get bail and skip out, they'd certainly get arrested.


That's the problem with our system, white-collar crimes such as this (although it wasn't really as he was physically trying to steal the thing) are given way too much leniency from the court system.
 

Formica Archonis

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Nov 13, 2009
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Deathfish15 said:
What the fuck? (ya, sorry for the language).
That's OK. Well-placed profanity has its place in the English language, providing a coarse edge when needed. It's only through overuse that it becomes both banal and offensive. For example:

That's fucking OK. Well-fucking-placed fucking profanity fucking has its fucking place in the fucking English fucking language, fucking providing a fucking coarse fucking edge when fucking needed. It's fucking only fucking through fucking overuse that it fucking becomes fucking both fucking banal and fucking offensive. Fucking fuckadoodie fuck gerfucken fuckfuckfuck.

Deathfish15 said:
Seriously, if someone goes into a Best Buy and steals a $600 LCD Sony TV, they'd go to jail and then if they do get bail and skip out, they'd certainly get arrested.

That's the problem with our system, white-collar crimes such as this
While apocryphal, there's a story that after a corrupt financier (Richard Whitney [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Whitney_(financier)], I believe) went to jail, a judge decided to issue sentences of similar measure, breaking Whitney's down into dollars-per-hour and using that as a basis. It meant he sent one fellow who robbed a gas station to jail for 26 minutes.

Deathfish15 said:
(although it wasn't really as he was physically trying to steal the thing) are given way too much leniency from the court system.
It depends how you define white-collar crime, really. As originally defined it only covered crimes like embezzlement, money laundering, etc. Things done by the powerful. Now, some people classify all computer crime as white-collar, even if done by someone who definitely isn't the respectable business sort. I guess we can call it white-collar, if only because it's not blue-collar (which tends to involve physical force and physical goods destroyed or stolen).

The leniency seems to be mostly because he projects the image of being a stupid kid who did something moronic and then ran. Imagine how fast things would change if we found out one of the other companies at PAX paid him to do it. Suddenly it would be industrial espionage and I bet the police would be bringing him in to see what employer information he'd trade for a plea bargain.
 

fanklok

Legendary Table User
Jul 17, 2009
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New date rolls around.
*ring* * ring*
"Hello this is John."
"John you missed your arraignment again."
"What? Ohhhh that was today, yeah I so totally forgot I was too busy playing uhhh, yo Nick give me a game title, Halo 3. Can we reschedule?"

I think me may actually avoid it for a while then people are going to catch on.

Formica Archonis said:
That's fucking OK. Well-fucking-placed fucking profanity fucking has its fucking place in the fucking English fucking language, fucking providing a fucking coarse fucking edge when fucking needed. It's fucking only fucking through fucking overuse that it fucking becomes fucking both fucking banal and fucking offensive. Fucking fuckadoodie fuck gerfucken fuckfuckfuck.
That isn't banal or offensive, that is hi-fucking-larious. You win one internets.
 

Mr. Grey

I changed my face, ya like it?
Aug 31, 2009
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Well... I don't think this guy is all that bright and that may very well have been why they let him off the hook. But in the end he will have to answer for it and if Atomic Games believes his criminal punishment isn't enough they can pursue a civil lawsuit and really hurt him.

And yes, I'm hoping Atomic Games does just that.

Eukaryote said:
Who is John Dillinger?
Johnny Depp if I'm not mistaken.