Hacker’s Love At First Byte Turns Sour

A man accused of computer stalking says he is being wrongly prosecuted for what he insists was an innocent, if ardent, effort to revive a failed romance via e-mail.

“While I went as far as I could - up to the edge of this law - in trying to talk to her, that’s as far as I was going to go,” said Andy Archambeau.

Archambeau’s attorney, Matthew Leitman, told a judge Monday that Michigan’s stalking law is so broadly worded that it could violate free-speech rights. The judge didn’t immediately rule.

The case could set a precedent in determining how far such laws can go in protecting against socalled “cyberstalking.” Michigan’s stalking law, passed in 1993, is one of the nation’s strictest.

Archambeau, 32, was arrested in May. He is accused of using electronic mail to harass a woman he had met through a video dating service.