Georgia Man Indicted

A Calhoun county   grand jury has indicted   a Georgia man who they say attempted to illegally access the National Crime Information Database through a state-controlled website.  19 year old Thomas Jack Hixon,  of Chickamauga, Ga., turned himself in at the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday morning. The indictment states Hixon is charged with computer tampering and seeking to obtain criminal offender records by false pretense. He was released on a $50,000 bond shortly after his arrest.  The charges are a violation of the Alabama Digital Crime Act, according to a press release by the Alabama Attorney General’s Office.  The indictment alleges Hixon attempted to obtain criminal offender records in the National Crime Information Center database through the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center website by saying his request was for “official law enforcement or criminal justice purposes.”  Although officials would not comment on the specifics of the case, Alabama law states such cases can be tried in the county in which the victimized computer or computer system, or the computer used in the attack, is located. The law also states the case can be tried in the county in which an authorized computer user was denied service or had their service interrupted due to the computer attack.  If convicted on the felony charge of computer tampering, Hixon could face up to 10 years in jail and a fine of up to $15,000, according to the release. Hixon could face up to five years of jail time and a fine of up to $10,000 on the charge of attempting to obtain criminal offender records information, the release says.