Former Louisville detective could face years in federal prison in cyberstalking case
By Laura Ly, CNN
A former Louisville Metro Police Department detective is possibly facing years in federal prison when he is sentenced next week for using his law enforcement access to a database, obtaining information about women, and stealing sexually explicit photos and videos from them.
Bryan Andrew Wilson, 36, is due to be sentenced on Wednesday after pleading guilty in June to one count of conspiring to commit cyberstalking. A sentencing memo filed in the US District Court in Kentucky on Tuesday says Wilson used his law enforcement access to Accurint, a database of public records and nonpublic information, to obtain information about potential hacking victims.
Wilson was accused of using the stolen photos and videos to extort the women for more sexually explicit content, federal prosecutors say in court documents.
Meanwhile, Wilson and another former Louisville detective are accused in a separate case involving driving unmarked police vehicles and throwing beverages at civilians before fleeing the scene, according to court documents. Wilson also pleaded guilty in this case, according to a press release from the US Attorney’s office.
Wilson faces a maximum penalty of 15 years for the cyberstalking and a civil rights violation involving the beverage incidents. In the sentencing memo, prosecutors say that as part of a plea agreement, they recommend to the judge “a sentence at the lowest end of the applicable Sentencing Guideline range.”
Federal prosecutors said that Wilson shared the information he obtained from Accurint with a hacker who hacked into the private Snapchat accounts of multiple women to acquire explicit photos and videos.
“If sexually explicit photographs and videos were obtained, Wilson texted his victims and extorted them, threatening to publish the photographs and videos to their family, friends, and co-workers unless they provided him with additional sexually explicit photographs and videos,” federal prosecutors write in the court filing.
CNN has reached out to Louisville Metro Police and Wilson’s attorney for comment. The hacker whom Wilson allegedly shared information with was not named in the court documents.
Wilson is thought to have begun these cyberstalking activities in autumn 2020, prosecutors say. Wilson had resigned from the department in July 2020, according to Louisville police.
Upon discovering Wilson still had access to the Accurint system, Louisville Metro “immediately disabled” his access, the department said in a statement to CNN.
“A review was performed, and procedures have been put in place to ensure all access is suspended once a member separates from LMPD,” the statement said.
The FBI determined that Wilson was involved in hacking at least 25 online accounts and directly contacted eight women, according to the sentencing memo.
There were six women from whom he “stole compromising photographs, videos and other information and attempted to extort additional material on threat of publication,” the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky said in a June news release.
The-CNN-Wire
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CNN’s Leidy Cook contributed to this report.
