Barrett Brown’s Mother faces Prison

Anonymous hacktivist Barrett Brown’s Mother faces Prison for hiding Evidences

The legal troubles of Barrett Brown, the alleged spokesperson of the hacking collective Anonymous do not seem to be ending as of now. In fact, his mother is also bearing the brunt of his confrontation with the legal system. His mother Karen McCutchin has pleaded guilty to helping her son hide two computers which the FBI wished to seize during a raid on his house last year, and this can cost her a hefty sum as fine and a stint in prison.

Anonymous hacktivist Barrett Brown’s Mother faces Prison for hiding Evidences

It was during the last week that Karen McCutchin had accepted her offense of obstructing the execution of a search warrant and at present she is waiting to be sentenced. She could be sentenced with up to an year in prison and a fine of 100,000 dollars.

It all started on March 6, 2012 when the FBI performed the raid on the house of Barrett Brown in Dallas, Texas so as to uncover evidence and information about his affiliation with the hacking collective Anonymous and their offshoot LulzSec as he was closely linked to both the groups. The FBI wanted to investigate his personal website as he headed the Operation PM and was linked in the hacking of StratFor, a private intelligence agency from which data was stolen. He wasn’t in the house at the time of raid and he moved his computers to his mother’s house nearby. When he was asked by the investigators to hand over his equipment, he denied and then the officers came back with a search warrant for his mother’s house and seized all equipment.

Brown himself wrote about this raid the very next day “They told me that they’d executed a search warrant at my apartment and that the door had been broken in the process, and then asked me if I had any laptops with me here at my mom’s place that I wanted to give them. I responded in the negative, and they left,” “At any rate, the Feds came back a couple of hours later with a search warrant for my mom’s place – they fully intended to take a certain laptop, and did.” 

After this altercation, he wrote more about the inclination of the authorities to prosecute his mom. In fact this was the reason for his posting of a video on YouTube in which he threatened an FBI agent with dire action which led to more stringent charges against Brown when he was finally arrested in September last year. Brown is awaiting prosecution as of now as his hearing has been delayed till September which means that he will have spent a year in prison by then. He has been indicted on three charges and could face up to 100 years in prison.

However, during an interview for a magazine from behind the bars he has mentioned that he is not worried about his trial and he is hopeful that others will continue his crusade. But it is unfortunate that his mother is facing a harsh penalty as a result of his case.