SUSANA MAR TINEZ

6125 JORNADO NORTH

LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO 88012
October 6, 2014
Via Hand-Delivery
Honorable William P. Johnson
United States District Court
District of New Mexico
Pete V. Domenici United States Courthouse
333 Lomas Blvd. NW, Ste 640
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87102
Re: United States of America v. Jamie Estrada
Dear Judge Johnson,
I write to you today as a victim and on behalf of numerous other victims in this case,
many of whom are involved merely by virtue of their service in government, in New Mexico and
across the country. I write on behalf of yet other victims, including family, friends and
acquaintances of mine and of my staff, who never could have anticipated that private
communications touching on some of the most sensitive and personal subjects in their lives
would be stolen and broadcast to the world. As a victim, and also as someone who has
prosecuted cases for 25 years, I can state unequivocally that Jamie Estrada's actions warrant a
severe punishment commensurate with his crimes.
In December 2009, I fired Jamie Estrada from my campaign after I learned that he had
been accessing my personal emails, which he was not authorized to read. Estrada was later
passed over for a job in my administration, and in spite of his education, relatively successful
career, ample financial resources and the support of family, friends and colleagues, Estrada made
the strategic choice to engage in criminal acts in order to exact retribution. Make no mistake: this
is not a sympathetic defendant. The Court is not deciding the sentence of a parent who, facing
the proverbial Hobson's Choice, stole food to feed a hungry child. This defendant has a wealth
of resources, including some degree of sophistication, which he has used to his advantage in
disguising what are deceitful and criminal tendencies. It is because of his greed, entitlement,
vanity and quest for power, at any cost, that he finds himself in the present circumstances. That
he has influential supporters, an expensive house near the beltway and a graduate degree does
not excuse Estrada's criminal acts - those qualities only heighten his culpability.
A year and a half after I had fired him, when Jamie Estrada hijacked my email account
and eavesdropped on communications, he plundered some of the most private details of my life
and the lives of many others. But he did worse than that. Worse than breaking into my home and
rifling through my belongings, Estrada actually intercepted and stole private communications
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and prevented them from reaching me and others. Using confidential password and user
information, which he had access to only by virtue of his former employment on my campaign,
Estrada directed messages intended for me and other victims to a computer account he
controlled. This defendant actually took over my email account and went so far as to send a
message as if it was from me. Knowing that his activities were criminal, Estrada went to great
lengths to attempt to cover his tracks in order to avoid being discovered or apprehended. Before
he intercepted a single email, Estrada had already adopted a fake name and address and had
purchased pre-paid gift cards to shield his true identity. And when the time came, he was
absolutely brazen in his lies to the FBI.
Estrada's sinister activities went on for nearly a year, but the damage to the victims in
this case will persist indefinitely. Estrada surreptitiously monitored my emails and the emails of
other staff and colleagues around the country, intercepting hundreds upon hundreds of messages.
He worked alongside others, including Anissa Galassini-Ford, who also had held a position of
trust as my former personal assistant on the campaign and who had also been passed over for a
state job, to transmit the stolen material to various political opponents, knowing the emails would
be further disseminated. This was done to impose maximum damage and embarrassment on me
and on my colleagues and staff Numerous emails were in fact disseminated and continue to be
released to this day through various conduits. To say that Estrada's actions were deliberate and
calculating is a gross understatement. The repercussions of his criminal acts will last at least as
long as those stolen materials may be found on the interne, which is in practical terms, forever.
Estrada's crimes are even more reprehensible given that they were intended not only to
inflict damage on me personally, but also to disrupt our state government. This characteristic of
Estrada's crimes and the clear motivation behind his actions clearly demonstrates his future
dangerousness. That Estrada would indiscriminately and vengefully attack a sitting governor,
staff and associates in a deliberate attempt to exploit, embarrass and harm many, demonstrates a
well-developed and calculated plan, not an isolated incident.
I feel compelled to address several assertions that have been made to persuade this Court
that Estrada, despite his criminal acts, is both honest and remorseful. The sitting District
Attorney in Dona Ana County and a former federal agent writes, "Jamie is a good and honest
man." Estrada worked on District Attorney Mark D'Antonio's behalf during his campaign for the
office, at which time it is my understanding that Estrada provided him with emails he had stolen,
for use in the campaign. In his letter on Estrada's behalf, D'Antonio writes that he confronted
Estrada about the indictment and that Estrada admitted his involvement. Despite the District
Attorney's portrayal of Estrada as remorseful, Estrada's ensuing actions over the course of the
investigation and throughout this case evidence his true character. His criminal acts unchecked,
Estrada continued to deny his culpability, even going so far as to brazenly argue that FBI agents
had perjured themselves with regard to his case. In this context, I was also extremely alarmed to
learn that D'Antonio, himself a law enforcement official, disclosed that he had heard what was in
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October 6, 2014
essence a confession and yet failed to take action that would have brought Estrada to justice and
mitigated the damage caused to the victims.
Although some aspects of Estrada's crimes are relatively novel, notably his methods in
accessing my email domain and the ways he attempted to cover his tracks, several comparable
cases involving illegal access of email accounts are instructive with respect to sentencing. In
2012, in the case of United States v. Chaney, a man convicted of breaking into the personal
online accounts of Scarlett Johansson, Christina Aguilera and others was sentenced to ten years
in prison. See U.S. v. Chaney, 2:11-cr-00958-SJO-1 (C.D.Cal.). As in this case, the defendant
had attempted to disguise his identity, using a proxy service to prevent law enforcement from
tracing the hacking to his home computer. United States District Judge S. James Otero found that
the defendant, who had gained exclusive control over the victims' email accounts and had
obtained private communications and confidential documents, just as Estrada did in this case,
showed callous disregard in illegally downloading and sharing very sensitive information with
the world, causing psychological and emotional distress to the victims and their families. The
court departed upward from the guideline range and made a point of noting that the non-celebrity
victims, too, were tormented for long periods.
In 2011, David Kernell, a 22 year old college student with no prior criminal convictions,
was sentenced to 12 months incarceration and three years supervised release (affirmed by the
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals) when he used public information about Sarah Palin in order to
access her email account and reset her password. See U.S. v. Kerness 3:08-cr-00142-TWP-CCS-
1 (E.D.Tenn). As in this case, Kernell read Palin' s emails, established exclusive control over
Palin's account and and also deprived her of access to the account.
Crimes involving computer intrusions and email "hacks" continue to present a significant
threat, making Estrada's sentence potentially meaningful as a deterrent of crimes in this new
electronic frontier. The FBI is presently engaged in an ongoing investigation into reports that
hackers have stolen and leaked private and intimate pictures of over 100 celebrities. This latest
series of intrusions is yet another example demonstrating the extent of the potential damage as
well as the vast costs and difficulties involved in detecting and stopping perpetrators like
Estrada.
As an elected official, I live a very public life. That elected figures live under something
of a microscope is perhaps a necessary condition for an informed public, and yet, even as a
public official, I maintain very personal documents that are not intended for public view. The
confidentiality of these materials is important not only to me, but to all those with whom I
exchange confidential information. Many of my communications are by necessity electronic,
meaning that the content of my emails too is often not just private, but very personal, and some
of my emails and those of other victims include content that is privileged and confidential as a
matter of law. For instance, victims of past crimes continue to communicate with me, doctors
discuss medical issues, clergy give encouraging words, lawyers provide legal advice, retailers
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detail transactions, banks issue statements, law enforcement officers communicate about
investigations, political advisors discuss strategies, constituents detail personal issues, and so on.
The potential content is endless.
As a prosecutor, I served victims, I fought to keep communities safe, and in every
instance, I knew that it was my job to protect individuals' privacy. In screening cases, if I
learned of an unlawful search, I routinely refused to proceed with the case. Experience has taught
me that privacy truly is the touchstone of our criminal justice system. While the issues in this
case are not foreign to me as a prosecutor, the extent of the damage inflicted on the victims and
the calculated and deliberate invasions of privacy by this defendant are striking. To this day, I do
not know the full content of the emails that never reached me because Estrada diverted the traffic
and stole them. Apart from the damage Jamie Estrada inflicted on me and on various government
officials, I hope the Court will weigh and consider Estrada's actions in violating the privacy of
many other private citizens who did not hold themselves out as public figures. A fair and just
punishment in this case will reflect the enormity of the damage Estrada caused and continues to
cause to so many. Thank you very much for your service and for your thoughtful consideration
regarding the appropriate punishment for this defendant. Thank you also to the many FBI agents
and assistant United States Attorneys who have worked on this case.