District attorney drops Mitnick case

The Los Angeles district attorney's office has dropped state charges against Kevin Mitnick, the notorious hacker who pleaded guilty in March to wire fraud and other federal charges, according to a published report.

Mitnick, who will receive a five-year sentence if a federal judge accepts the plea, could be released from jail early next year. He has been held in federal custody since he was captured in a high-profile investigation in 1995. He also faced separate state charges as well.

But Deputy District Attorney Daniel Bershin said today he was dropping those charges, because they had been "mischarged," ZD Network News is reporting. The case stemmed from 1993 charges that Mitnick unlawfully accessed computers at the state department of motor vehicles.

Bershin admitted in a brief filed today that the case was flawed because Mitnick never accessed the computer himself, but allegedly used posed as a welfare fraud inspector over the phone in order to get a DMV to retrieve information, ZDNN said.

Mitnick is scheduled to appear in federal court in Los Angeles this Monday for sentencing before U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer.