We don’t want to turn into TCMZ or anything here, but since this was such an inflammatory story to begin with and we followed up on the criminal charges a couple months ago, it seemed worthwhile to put a cap on the whole “stolen iPhone 4” saga.
If you’ll remember, Jason Chen (editor at Gizmodo at the time) was sheltered from prosecution by journalism protection laws. But the pair of guys who sold the phone to them, Brian Hogan and Sage Wallower, weren’t so lucky. They were charged with misappropriation of lost property and possession of stolen property.
They were spared anything more than media overexposure and a slap on the wrist, though, after they entered a no contest plea in court. San Mateo county DA Richard Wagstaffe told CNET:
We asked for some jail time. The judge considered that Wallower had served in the armed forces and Hogan was enrolled in San Jose State, and neither had any criminal record, and decided that jail time wasn’t required. Someone from my office called Apple’s general counsel. This is a fairly routine theft case. This was a couple of youthful people who should have known better.
The two will pay $250 each in restitution to Apple, do 40 hours of community service, and will have a year of probation. Having escaped the grasp of the law myself for a similar reason (i.e. general harmlessness and lack of a record), I can empathize.
That pretty much exhausts the iPhone 4 story, and I have to say I’m glad to see it go. Nothing good came of it, but at least now we can say that nothing too bad did either. Now let us never speak of it again.