Fairfax County Police Sergeant Pleads Guilty to Unauthorized Computer Access

(Alexandria, VA) – Weiss Rasool, age 30, a Sergeant with the Fairfax County, Virginia, Police Department, pled guilty today to a criminal information charging him with Unauthorized Computer Access. Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Washington Field Office, made the announcement after Rasool’s guilty plea was accepted by United States Magistrate Judge Barry R. Poretz. Rasool faces a maximum of one year in prison, a fine of $100,000, and one year of supervised release when he is sentenced on April 15, 2008.

According to court documents, Rasool, a seven year veteran of the Fairfax County Police Department, used the Fairfax County Police Department’s computer dispatch system to access information from the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) to provide it to an individual subsequently convicted of felony offenses in the Eastern District of Virginia. Rasool, without having a legitimate law enforcement purpose to do so, also checked his own name and the names of others to determine if those names were registered with the Violent Crime and Terrorist Offender File, which is a category of records maintained within the NCIC system. All records in NCIC are protected from unauthorized access through appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. These safeguards include restrictions on the disclosure of data only to those with a need to perform their official duties. Rasool knew that the information obtained through this system was permitted to be used for criminal justice purposes only.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case. Assistant United States Attorney Jeanine Linehan prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

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