BRENDAN KEARNEY
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer
September 21, 2007

A Baltimore judge dealt harshly with the man who stole $113,500 worth of computer equipment used in the Johns Hopkins Hospital to monitor cancer patients, likening his crime to attempted murder and sentencing him to 12 years in prison.

Gregg Wakefield, a 37-year-old computer technician, and his attorney sought leniency from Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Lynn K. Stewart, saying Wakefield was depressed and in dire financial straits after a divorce and an order to pay child support for his 6-year-old daughter.

Stewart, who held her head in her hands before delivering the disposition, was unmoved.

“The vulnerable, the weak, the sick, and the dying were put at risk because of what he did,” the judge told Wakefield’s lawyer, Brian G. Thompson.

“This is life, sir, not child support or money…,” she said directly to Wakefield. “When you victimize the helpless, that is about as low as you can go.”

According to court papers, Wakefield, an employee of Hopkins subcontractor PrimeNet Inc. in Glen Burnie, broke into the network server room of the East Baltimore hospital’s Weinberg Building through an air vent.

He stole “several router computer cards and several g-bite computer cards” during two evening visits in May and December 2006, the charging document says.

He sold the items over the Internet for $18,000, the Office of the State’s Attorney said.

A surveillance video showed Wakefield parking in the hospital lot, wheeling in a black bag and leaving minutes later with the same bag — noticeably heavier on the second occasion, according to the court documents.

PrimeNet President Craig Digregorio called hospital security after seeing stills of Wakefield on Hopkins’ security Web site, court papers said.

PrimeNet has paid Hopkins full restitution, Assistant State’s Attorney Jason Knight told Stewart.

Wakefield pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree burglary in July. Knight asked for a 15-year term for each count.

Thompson called the recommendation “shocking” in light of sentencing guidelines of three to eight years and his client’s previously “honorable life,” including a stint in the U.S. Navy in the Middle East.

“How many people in this room have spent nine years of their lives defending our country?” Thompson asked, turning to survey the gallery.

Wakefield, who appeared in a prison jumpsuit — he is serving three years for a separate identity-theft conviction — said he’d been “selfish” but had not known the crucial function of the computers he disconnected.

“I was trying to find the easy way out for my problems,” Wakefield said. “Thank God no one was hurt.”

Wakefield’s sentence will start after he completes his term for the 2003 identity theft, for which he had been on probation.

In addition, he is scheduled to appear Sept. 25 in Baltimore County Circuit Court, where prosecutors will argue that he violated probation for an April 2007 burglary conviction.

Wakefield’s mother, Paula Wakefield, flew in from Texas for Thursday’s sentencing and wept after her son was escorted from court.

“He didn’t even know what he was taking,” she said. “My son’s not a loser to society.”

Judge: Hospital thief endangered cancer patients

Luke Broadwater, The Examiner

2007-09-21 07:00:00.0

Current rank: # 52 of 4,457

BALTIMORE -

Judge Lynn Stewart has seen murderers, shooters and drug dealers.

But the burglary case she presided over Thursday — in which Johns Hopkins Hospital cancer patients were endangered — was a new low.

“No, no one was shot,” Stewart said in Baltimore City Circuit Court.

“No, no one was killed. No, it’s not a boatload of drugs. But, in the court’s opinion, it’s worse.”

Stewart sentenced Greg Wakefield — a nine-year veteran of the U.S. Navy — to 12 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to crawling through the vents of the hospital’s Weinberg cancer building twice in 2006 to steal computer network equipment, taking the building’s network down on both occasions.

The hospital suffered a total loss of about $113,000.

“The network system that was stolen is connected to all the rooms that contain cancer patients,” Baltimore police Detective Thomas Jeffries wrote in charging documents.

“The system being down jeopardizes the safety of all the patients.”

Stewart said: “This is life and death. It could have been catastrophic to any patient there.”

No one was hurt in the incidents.

Wakefield, 37, of Baltimore, apologized to the hospital and his family — and said he committed the crime to try to fund $550 monthly child support payments he incurred after he went through a divorce.

“It was really selfish,” Wakefield said. “I thought of no one else but myself. I was under a lot of pressure, but that’s no reason for my selfish acts.”

Wakefield has never held a job that pays more than $32,000 a year, said his attorney, Brian Thompson.

Prosecutors recommended a 15 year sentence for Wakefield.

“Fifteen years in a city that has 300 murders is excessive for a nonviolence offense,” Thompson said.

The attorney argued that Wakefield spent most of his life, until the age of 34, being a productive member of a society, including service in the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

“Worse than an uneducated criminal is an educated criminal,” the judge replied.

Examiner

Computer thief gets 12-year term

Burglary shut down monitoring equipment in cancer ward at Hopkins Hospital

By a Sun reporter

September 21, 2007

A man who worked for a company installing computer cables at Johns Hopkins Hospital was sentenced yesterday to 12 years in prison for stealing valuable computer network cards that, when disconnected, shut down monitoring equipment in a cancer ward, Baltimore prosecutors said.

Authorities said in court papers that the man's actions on two days last year jeopardized "the safety of all the patients." However, a hospital spokesman, John Lazarou, said that "patient safety was not jeopardized. There are backup systems to protect continuity of care."

Gregg Wakefield, 37, of Parkville pleaded guilty in July to several charges, including two counts of burglary, for twice stealing the same equipment -- on May 1 and Dec. 2 last year -- from a secure room in the Weinberg Building.

Prosecutors said Wakefield sold two network cards and related equipment -- worth a total of $113,000 -- to a person he had met on the Internet for about $18,000.

Wakefield worked for a Glen Burnie company, PrimeNet, and was installing video and audio cables in the Weinberg building last year. Police said Wakefield was not supposed to be in the computer network room and that he crawled through vents to gain access. He was caught on a video surveillance tape.

Police said a tape recording made during the May theft showed a man fitting Wakefield's description pulling a black bag on wheels into the hospital and then leaving with the bag a short time later. The computers in the cancer ward went down while the suspect was inside.

Seven months later, police said, a man parked a dark green Chevy Blazer in the garage and was captured on video again entering the Weinberg Building carrying the same luggage. He was seen leaving a short time later, and a police officer noted in a report that the bag "appears heavier than when he arrived."

Security officials at Hopkins posted photos of Wakefield on their internal Internet system, and his supervisors at PrimeNet recognized him. Shannon Gibson, the company's human resources manager, said Wakefield was fired. Gibson said the company performs background checks on employees and bars workers who have been convicted of theft, burglary, fraud and assault. She said it had found no prior convictions for Wakefield.

According to court records and Wakefield's attorney, Bruce G. Thompson, Wakefield was on probation for burglary while he worked for the company. And court records show that he was convicted of fraud and identity theft in 2003. At the sentencing hearing, Thompson said, his client "took full responsibility for his actions. He didn't try to make excuses. What he did was selfish."

Thompson said Wakefield had no criminal record until he was 34. He had spent nine years in the Navy and is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm. The lawyer said Wakefield was honorably discharged.

In addition to the 12-year burglary sentence, Baltimore Circuit Judge Lynn K. Stewart gave Wakefield three years for violating the terms of his probation from the previous burglary conviction in Baltimore County.

"I thought it was a terribly harsh sentence," Thompson said.