Rene Palomino, the lawyer for accused computer hacker Albert Gonzalez, argued in a recent interview with ComputerWorld magazine that Gonzalez is more addicted to computers than he is to crime.
Palomino, who is based in Miami where Gonzalez was first arrested, said that Gonzalez, now 28, has had an obsession with computers since he was eight.
U.S. prosecutors in three separate jurisdictions have filed indictments charging Gonzalez for being a leading conspirator behind most of the major card security breaches since 2007.
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"He was self-taught," Palomino told the magazine. "He didn't go out in the sandbox or play baseball. The computer was his best friend."
Gonzalez's "addiction" manifested itself in an obsession to move to greater and greater challenges for his computing skills. "Gonzalez was not looking to harm anyone physically," he said in the interview, "he is not a hardened criminal."
But critics of the lawyer's argument pointed to allegations in the indictments that Gonzalez seemed to revel in the ill-gotten gains of his crimes as much or more than he did in hacking. The indictments filed so far detail lavish birthday parties, complaints about having too much stolen money to count and more than $1.65 million in a bank account when he was arrested in May.
Palomino has not returned calls or emails seeking comment on his position.
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