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Scholarship Student at L.A. College Charged With Computer Hacking

Posted on: Thursday, 29 September 2005, 00:00 CDT

By The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Sep. 29--A Laguna Creek High School graduate, who is now in college on a scholarship, was charged Wednesday with multiple counts of computer hacking and burglary in an alleged scheme to change his grades, court officials said.

Alexander Ochoa, who is now 18, is to be arraigned Oct. 7 in Sacramento Juvenile Court, according a court administrator. Details of the charges and the maximum punishment they carry are confidential because Ochoa is being prosecuted as a minor.

According to law enforcement sources, Ochoa is charged with 86 felony counts of unauthorized access of a school computer and three counts of commercial burglary. He is accused of breaking into school buildings to change grades on a school computer.

School officials have said that Ochoa's grades were changed beginning in March 2004. His grade-point average increased from 3.76 to 3.96, school officials said in court documents.

Officials said other student's grades were changed in an attempt to create a smoke screen to cover up the first grade changes, which were Ochoa's.

Ochoa's mother, Patricia, declined to discuss her son's case.

Reached Wednesday in Los Angeles where he is a freshman at Occidental College on a full scholarship, Ochoa referred comment about the charges to his lawyer Hamilton Hintz Jr.

The prominent defense attorney couldn't be reached for comment.

Ochoa, who hopes one day to become a pediatrician, said he is enjoying college life.

"I'm absolutely loving it," he said.

In a written statement he provided school officials May 6, Ochoa denied any wrongdoing.

"I did not change the grades and I did not cheat," Ochoa wrote. "I would not (have) done such a stupid act; one which I am smart enough to realize (leads to) criminal prosecution."

Ochoa became the target of a criminal investigation weeks later after Elk Grove Unified School District officials said he used a teacher's password to change more than three-dozen student grades.

Later investigators said they learned that Ochoa had gained entry three times to school offices after hours, including one time at midnight, with the use of a key he was not authorized to have.

Ochoa is the seventh student over the past year in the Sacramento area to be charged with computer hacking to change grades.

Although confidentiality laws prohibit public disclosure of details of certain offenses committed by juveniles such as computer theft crimes, a judge can use discretion to allow the news media and the public to attend court hearings for such cases.

After Ochoa was suspended and banned from attending his graduation ceremony, he and his mother filed suit in Sacramento Superior Court. Ochoa would not have been named by The Bee because he is a minor, but he and his mother identified themselves in the suit to force the school district to let him walk with his fellow students at graduation.

Charles E. Bauer, who represented Ochoa, argued that students and school officials targeted his client because he had such a high profile on campus.

Judge Thomas M. Cecil denied the court order, citing at the time the district's intention of expelling him from school.

But two weeks later at the expulsion hearing, school board members decided against the expulsion, saying Ochoa had earned enough credits for a diploma.

Jim Elliott, spokesman for Elk Grove Unified said Ochoa, said the district forwarded only Ochoa's name to law enforcement for criminal investigation.

"The investigation had pointed to only one suspect," Elliott said.

The district informed colleges and universities about any changes in transcripts resulting from the grade changing incidents. Elliott said, to his knowledge, the grade changes did not affect any of the students' admittance into a school.

Jim Tranquada, a spokesperson for Occidental said he couldn't comment on details of Ochoa's scholarship citing state and federal confidentiality laws.

Tranquada did say the school's scholarships were either based on financial need or scholastic merits, or a combination of the two. The school offers no athletic scholarships, he said.

Tranquada said he couldn't comment on the criminal charges. "We made every effort to verify all information provided to us by the school district."

Laguna Creek High students had almost forgotten about the Ochoa case when told about the charges filed Wednesday.

Juniors Ana Aguila, 15; Dianne Gueco, 16; Mymy Nguyen, 15 and Irene Reprado, 15; stood in front of the school with their arms loaded with books. They were shocked to learn about the charges.

"They said he was an honor roll student so I don't understand why he would change his grades," Aguila said. "Nobody should ever have to cheat their way into a grade. It's good that he did get caught."

Gueco said there is always two sides of a story and wanted to know more before making a judgment.

They were sad to see one more smudge on the school's reputation.

"No one ever pays attention to the good stuff," Gueco said.

By Ramon Coronado and Elizabeth Hume

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

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Source: The Sacramento Bee

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