Man who forged notes to judge faces prison

Michael P. Fish said he wanted to feel “alive.” To fulfill his thrill-seeking desires, the Albany man hacked into the computer accounts of dozens of unsuspecting female students at SUNY Plattsburgh. He stole their images, juxtaposed innocuous photos of graduations with X-rated ones, made collages and sold them to interested buyers on the internet.

Then, after he was arrested and pleaded guilty to federal crimes, Fish allegedly tried to dupe a new victim: The judge who would sentence him. As first reported by the Times Union, Fish sent

more than a half-dozen self-serving character letters to U.S. District Judge Mae D’agostino that were partly or fully fabricated under the names of his mother, a local priest, grandparents and a district director for U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik.

That led to new charges, which delayed Fish’s sentencing for more than a year. At 12:30 p.m., Friday, D’agostino will finally sentence Fish for his guilty plea in 2020 to charges of identity theft, computer intrusion causing damage, and possession of child pornography. Fish was charged with obstruction of justice for the alleged forgeries.

Prosecutors asked D’agostino to sentence Fish, 26, to at least nine years and three months in prison, and up to 11 years. Fish’s defense attorney, the Glens Falls-based Lawrence Elmen, asked the judge to impose no more than seven years and three months.

In a letter to the judge, Fish apologized for his crimes and explained what led him down a dark path. Fish, a native of South Korea whose Capital Region-based parents adopted him as a child, told the judge that many issues — his parents’ divorce when he was a young child, mental health matters, use of alcohol and drugs since the age of 13 — deeply impacted him. He also referenced an incident in 2000 in which his grandfather fatally stabbed an intruder who, according to Times Union archives, had broken into the home using a bowling pin and tried to start a fire. Fish was 4 at the time. He said it caused him to feel danger and worry at home.

Fish said he began watching pornography, then sought pornography of women he knew.

“To my shame, the act of hacking gave me a thrill-seeking sensation more than the gratification of obtaining any photographs,” Fish wrote the judge. “As terrible as it was, it was one of the only things that made me feel ‘alive’ at the time. The thrill of it all kept me going. I believed that because I was doing this all anonymously and undetected, that what people didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. I could have never been so wrong.”

Fish said he realizes his actions were “harmful, egregious and reprehensible.” Fish, whom prosecutors said possessed nine child pornography videos, said he knows the exploitation of children is “outright evil” and wants no part of it.

Elmen told the judge his client is a “broken man” who has found the “love of God, the love of his family, and a future love for himself.”

In pleading guilty, Fish admitted that between 2016 and 2019, while he was a student at SUNY Plattsburgh and later at Albany Law School, he accessed accounts of female students in the Plattsburgh school computer network. He created new passwords and hacked into the female students’ social media accounts and their personal information. Fish then downloaded sexually explicit and embarrassing photos stored in other accounts, and traded the stolen photos and videos online. He identified the victims in the photos.

Federal prosecutors have said Fish’s intent was to “embarrass, shame and dehumanize” the female students. In August, D’agostino sentenced Fish’s accomplice Nicholas Faber to three years in prison for computer intrusion causing damage and aggravated identity theft.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rosenthal and Michael J. Stawasz, a Department of Justice deputy chief for computer crime, told the judge Fish should not receive leniency for accepting responsibility for his crimes because there was “ample reason to conclude that the defendant engaged in an elaborate scheme in which he doctored or falsified six character letters submitted through his prior defense counsel in connection with sentencing.”

In 2020, the Times Union reported the alleged forgeries after reaching out to Stefanik’s office to respond to a character sent letter to D’agostino. The letter was sent on Fish’s behalf under the name of Jonathan Carman, a district director for Stefanik. Carman had once briefly supervised Fish when Fish, then a student at Plattsburgh, volunteered for Stefanik’s 2016 campaign. Carman wrote a letter of reference for Fish long before Fish’s crimes were known. Fish allegedly blended portions of that letter with false claims that Carman was attesting to Fish’s character and integrity following Fish’s guilty plea. Carman said it was a fabrication.

The Times Union then learned that Fish had allegedly forged letters from his mother, grandparents, priest and others. Fish’s charges in that case remain pending.

Elmen submitted new letters to the judge on his client’s behalf from Fish’s mother, father and grandfather, among others.