By Chris Brown / STL Baseball Today | @cbrown_STLBBT | Jan. 8, 2016, 1:47 pm CT
Former Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa, who was fired by the team back in July after just six months on the job for his alleged involvement in an unauthorized breach of the Houston Astros computer network, plead guilty Friday to federal criminal charges related to the investigation, David Barron of the Houston Chronicle first reported Friday afternoon.
According to Barron, who was in the court room, Correa plead guilty to five counts of unauthorized access to computer information.
- U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes accepted Correa’s guilty plea.
- The maximum penalty on each of those five counts includes up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250 thousand, and restitution.
- The value of the information which Correa gained unauthorized access to was set at $1.7 million.
- Correa gave up his right to appeal as part of the guilty plea.
- A sentencing hearing has been set for April 11.
- Correa told Hughes, “Yes, your honor, I accept responsibility for my mistakes.”
- Correa said he trespassed on the Astros computer system based on the suspicion that the Astros had possession of unauthorized Cardinals data.
- Hughes said of Correa’s actions: “You broke into their house to find if they were stealing your stuff.”
- When asked by Judge Hughes whether he found any Cardinals information, Correa said, “I did, your honor.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported Friday morning that Correa would plead guilty to charges in the case.
Correa was released Friday afternoon on a $20,000 bond, according to Derrick Goold and Robert Patrick of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who also provide the specifics of the charging documents, which detail the unauthorized access of Correa.
As for any potential punishment by Major League Baseball, Commissioner Rob Manfred has a broad range of potential options at his disposal to punish individual clubs in such circumstances.
The Cardinals, who concluded their own internal investigation into the matter with the firing of Correa serving as the only dismissal, issued a statement Friday night to say they have been directed not to comment.
Promoted to be the team’s scouting director in December 2014 to replace Dan Kantrovitz, Correa had been with the Cardinals since 2009, working closely with then-GM Jeff Luhnow in the scouting department as a statistical analyst before Luhnow and many of his staffers moved to Houston when he was named their general manager prior to the 2012 season.
Feature image used under Creative Commons from Ron Cogswell. No changes made. Image License.
