No bail for iPad e-mail address theft suspect

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — One of the two people charged in the theft of more than 100,000 e-mail addresses of Apple iPad users waived a bail hearing on Friday and will now face charges in New Jersey.

Andrew Auernheimer, part of a group called Goatse Security, was arrested Tuesday and faces counts of fraud and conspiracy to access a computer without authorization. The counts each carry a five-year maximum sentence.

Authorities are to take Auernheimer, 25, to New Jersey sometime in the next two weeks. His lawyer Ken Osborne said Auernheimer had little chance of making bail without employment or a family member to live with.

Osborne said Auernheimer's grandparents in Cassville, Mo., had agreed to let him live with them while out on bail but they changed their minds.

"You don't get released to somebody if they say no," Osborne said.

Daniel Spitler, 26, of San Francisco, was also arrested in connection with the case on Tuesday. Spitler was released on $50,000 bail and is due back in court in New Jersey in March.

"One of the things you most appreciate most about judges is consistency, so I've got to think the judge up there will probably release (Auernheimer)," Osborne said.

Auernheimer and Spitler are involved with Goatse, described in Tuesday's criminal complaint as a "loose association of Internet hackers and self-professed Internet 'trolls,'" people who disrupt Internet services and content.

Goatse said in an e-mail to The Associated Press earlier this week that Auernheimer and Spitler acted in the public interest by exposing a flaw in AT&T's security system.

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said Tuesday the investigation was continuing but there was no evidence the suspects used the information for criminal purposes.