Yahoo! News - NASCAR Fan Pleads in E-Mail Barrage Tue May 13, 2:59 PM ET
BOSTON - A NASCAR (news - web sites) fan who flooded Fox with angry e-mails after a Red Sox game pre-empted an auto race pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge Tuesday.
Michael Melo acknowledged that he fired off more than a half-million e-mail messages to WFXT-TV 25 in Boston after the Red Sox game was broadcast instead of a NASCAR race in 2001.
The e-mail messages were automatically forwarded to Fox-25's Los Angeles parent company, Fox Entertainment. The network, thinking it was a hacker attack, shut down Internet communication with the affiliate and was forced to spend about $36,000 to clean up the barrage.
Melo pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge of damage to a protected computer system. Under a plea agreement, the government recommended a sentence of six months' confinement in a halfway house. Melo's sentencing is Aug. 12.
After the hearing, Melo and his lawyer, Andrew Good, declined comment.
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