# 'jeopardy!' Winner Could Get Prison For Sneaking Into Emails



## Shula (Jun 17, 2018)

In this Oct. 2012 photo, Stephanie Jass of Tecumseh, Mich., poses at Adrian College in Adrian, Mich. The former &quot;Jeopardy!&quot; winner has been charged with illegally accessing co-workers&#39; email accounts at a small Michigan college. (Mike Dickie/The Daily Telegram via AP)

ADRIAN, Mich. (AP) — A seven-time "Jeopardy!" winner who taught history at a small Michigan college faces up to five years in prison for sneaking into the email accounts of other professors, administrators and students.

Stephanie Jass, who taught at Adrian College in southern Michigan, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Lenawee Circuit Court to a charge of unauthorized computer access. Her sentencing is scheduled for July 20.

Authorities said Jass logged into other people's email accounts without permission over a four-day period last year after the college reset everyone's passwords and assigned everyone the same temporary password. Another professor learned what Jass had done and told school officials.

State police wrote in a report that the professor told a detective that Jass had a document that listed "notes and comments and problems" of faculty members, according to the Jackson Citizen Patriot.

The 48-year-old Jass, of Tecumseh, was later fired.

"Privacy rights are a fundamental principle of our American democracy and Adrian College stands with those who protect these rights," the school said after Wednesday's plea.

Jass' seven-episode "Jeopardy!" winning streak in 2012 was a record at the time for a female contestant. It was later broken.

Defense attorney Raymond Correll said in court Wednesday that he intends to seek a delayed sentence which would push back Jass' sentencing to see how she follows bond conditions set by a judge, according to the Daily Telegram of Adrian.


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## Shula (Jun 17, 2018)

I normally don't post threads too much but this made me think of the clarinet player with the narc girlfriend who ruined his chances email snooping. This chick may be getting jail time; make sure the other one gets it, too.

This so irritating to me! Why are these people so doggone nosy? Like why? Don't you have pressing issues in your own life that should be keeping you out of everybody else's business? Did I give birth to you? Do I have any sort of relationship with you that gives me any measure of responsibility? Then, I don't care. Good luck. Imagine all the peace we could have if certain folks just minded their own business. Y'all would get so tired of #winning, lol. I promise you. Ugh.


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## danniegirl (Jun 17, 2018)

I low key would log on too if i knew everyones password was the same.

But just to be hlla nosy, i have a very creative and curious spirt


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## nysister (Jun 17, 2018)

I hope she does time.


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## Farida (Jun 17, 2018)

Like, how dumb is their IT that they issued the same password to everyone? Their IT needs to be fired too.


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## oneastrocurlie (Jun 17, 2018)

Farida said:


> Like, how dumb is their IT that they issued the same password to everyone? Their IT needs to be fired too.



Right! Not only did they assign everyone the same password, they then tell everyone they all have the same password? How dumb.


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## GeorginaSparks (Jun 17, 2018)

I would have done the same


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## Dee-Licious (Jun 17, 2018)

But “How she got caught?” is the question.

I shole hope she didn’t caught from running her mouth. That’s the kind of info to take to the grave.


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## Farida (Jun 17, 2018)

Dee-Licious said:


> But “How she got caught?” is the question.
> 
> I shole hope she didn’t caught from running her mouth. That’s the kind of info to take to the grave.


She either told someone or she saved that document about professor’s problems on their shared drives at work.

I filed a complaint against my employer and I used some documents they saved on our shared drives as evidence. You’d be shocked to see what people are dumb enough to save on shared drives that the entire office can acccess.


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## LiftedUp (Jun 17, 2018)

oneastrocurlie said:


> Right! Not only did they assign everyone the same password, they then tell everyone they all have the same password? How dumb.



At my last job, they began using a new system for us to use to check our work history, salary history etc at the company.  Everyone's default password was their dob. I changed mine immediately upon getting the email. A couple of days later my coworker asked me if I changed my pw because she couldn't get in my account .

Jail time is a bit extreme but I'm happy that she got fired.  This is unacceptable.


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## Chinagem (Jun 17, 2018)

LiftedUp said:


> At my last job, they began using a new system for us to use to check our work history, salary history etc at the company.  Everyone's default password was their dob. I changed mine immediately upon getting the email. *A couple of days later my coworker asked me if I changed my pw because she couldn't get in my account* .
> 
> Jail time is a bit extreme but I'm happy that she got fired.  This is unacceptable.



Are you for real?! How dumb can a person be? You mean to tell me she clued you in to the fact that she was trying to invade your privacy?


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## Theresamonet (Jun 17, 2018)

How is this a crime? She didn’t hack anything, she just... signed in. The idiots in IT are the ones who gave everyone the same temp password. They breached everyone’s privacy.


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## awhyley (Jun 17, 2018)

LiftedUp said:


> A couple of days later my coworker asked me if I changed my pw because she couldn't get in my account .


Did you ask her why she was trying to get all up in your bizness?  



Chinagem said:


> Are you for real?! How dumb can a person be? You mean to tell me she clued you in to the fact that she was trying to invade your privacy?



Exactly.  And I doubt that OP was the only one.


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## Shula (Jun 17, 2018)

LiftedUp said:


> A couple of days later my coworker ask



Say what now?!!! For the sheer brazenness, I have to report you and now you need to figure out how you're gonna feed your kids. There is nothing that could've possibly benefitted you to explain her creeping in your email, behind your back at that.


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## Theresamonet (Jun 17, 2018)

LiftedUp said:


> At my last job, they began using a new system for us to use to check our work history, salary history etc at the company.  Everyone's default password was their dob. I changed mine immediately upon getting the email. *A couple of days later my coworker asked me if I changed my pw because she couldn't get in my account .*
> 
> Jail time is a bit extreme but I'm happy that she got fired.  This is unacceptable.





What did you say?! What did you do?! Was/Is she white???


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## Shula (Jun 17, 2018)

Theresamonet said:


> How is this a crime? She didn’t hack anything, she just... signed in. The idiots in IT are the ones who gave everyone the same temp password. They breached everyone’s privacy.



I personally feel like if it' s not your personal email, written to you, you have breached my privacy. If she did this to a physical mailbox, it's a felony. I'm still stuck on how people get to be this nosy and if they would feel the same if the tables were turned? I just went back to work from a medical leave of absence and deliberately did not change the 50-11 passwords on everything, including email. It never occurred to me that you can't trust grown folks that have their very own email boxes to tend to, lol. Fortunately, I only handle business email appropriately but jeez.


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## LiftedUp (Jun 17, 2018)

Chinagem said:


> Are you for real?! How dumb can a person be? You mean to tell me she clued you in to the fact that she was trying to invade your privacy?



Yup.


awhyley said:


> Did you ask her why she was trying to get all up in your bizness?
> 
> .



Nope I just said yes and walked away.


Shula said:


> Say what now?!!! For the sheer brazenness, I have to report you and now you need to figure out how you're gonna feed your kids. There is nothing that could've possibly benefitted you to explain her creeping in your email, behind your back at that.



I was taken aback but figured it wasn't worth reporting *shrug*


Theresamonet said:


> What did you say?! What did you do?! Was/Is she white???


I just said yes and walked away. I think it changed it again to something more difficult for good measure.

She was mixed.


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## Theresamonet (Jun 17, 2018)

Shula said:


> I personally feel like if it' s not your personal email, written to you, you have breached my privacy. If she did this to a physical mailbox, it's a felony. I'm still stuck on how people get to be this nosy and if they would feel the same if the tables were turned? I just went back to work from a medical leave of absence and deliberately did not change the 50-11 passwords on everything, including email. It never occurred to me that you can't trust grown folks that have their very own email boxes to tend to, lol. Fortunately, I only handle business email appropriately but jeez.



You’ve made it clear that you don’t like nosy people, but being nosy, in essence, isn’t a crime. What she did was wrong and unprofessional, but I’m trying to figure out what she did that made it criminal. I’m guessing it was a violation of some technology usage agreement she signed with her employer, I don’t know. But she didn’t hack into those emails, IT basically gave everyone each other’s passwords, and I suppose the honor system was supposed to protect everyone’s privacy.


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## Theresamonet (Jun 17, 2018)

LiftedUp said:


> Yup.
> 
> 
> Nope I just said yes and walked away.
> ...



Ooh, girl. I would have reported her before she got that sentence out her mouth good.


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## RocStar (Jun 17, 2018)

Shula said:


> *I personally feel like if it' s not your personal email, written to you, you have breached my privacy. *If she did this to a physical mailbox, it's a felony. I'm still stuck on how people get to be this nosy and if they would feel the same if the tables were turned? I just went back to work from a medical leave of absence and deliberately did not change the 50-11 passwords on everything, including email. It never occurred to me that you can't trust grown folks that have their very own email boxes to tend to, lol. Fortunately, I only handle business email appropriately but jeez.



If you are using your company's email, computer, network, etc., you should have no expectation that anything is private...it all belongs to the company (in most cases).


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## Shula (Jun 17, 2018)

Theresamonet said:


> What did you say?! What did you do?! Was/Is she *white*???



I'm laughing because I can always count you to ask the important questions, lol. #QTNA posthaste!


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## Shula (Jun 17, 2018)

LiftedUp said:


> She was mixed.



Hollering, for some reason. Of course.


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## Shula (Jun 17, 2018)

Theresamonet said:


> You’ve made it clear that you don’t like nosy people, but being nosy, in essence, isn’t a crime. What she did was wrong and unprofessional, but I’m trying to figure out what she did that made it criminal. I’m guessing it was a violation of some technology usage agreement she signed with her employer, I don’t know. But she didn’t hack into those emails, IT basically gave everyone each other’s passwords, and I suppose the honor system was supposed to protect everyone’s privacy.




I get that but technically you don't have to "hack" a physical envelope either. Simply accessing/opening something, not addressed to you (in general) is a crime. You're probably right on a tech violation with that fine print of 5 million words I (most folks) never read.

My daughter's have a white friend that comes over. Good kid, love her to pieces, but every time she needs a spoon or a glass, she legit goes in every single drawer and cabinet in my kitchen....while we are all watching her with a little smile on her face the whole time. Irks the heck of out of me, lol. Some folks are just different I guess. One white friend wouldn't even hide that she would look thru my mail. Honestly, I wouldn't get the person in trouble at work if I was cool with them to any degree, but I'm gonna let you know and we ain't cool no more.


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## Shula (Jun 17, 2018)

RocStar said:


> If you are using your company's email, computer, network, etc., you should have no expectation that anything is private...it all *belongs to the company (in most cases).*





To the company, not the co-worker.
I understand this which is why I said I keep mine strictly professional. However, I'm assuming the right to go thru my email belongs to the folks in authority, not nosy *** Susan that has nothing better to do on lunch in the cubicle across from me. I promise my life is exciting enough without having the need to worry about what is in everybody else's email box. My manager emails 50 things I don't care about or aren't that important errday. I don't have time to read mine and Susie's in the next cubicle.


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## Theresamonet (Jun 17, 2018)

Shula said:


> I get that but technically you don't have to "hack" a physical envelope either. Simply accessing/opening something, not addressed to you (in general) is a crime. You're probably right on a tech violation with that fine print of 5 million words I (most folks) never read.



This comparison is off because, email is not protected under the same federal laws as physical mail (USPS). So simply opening an email not addressed to you, to my knowledge, isn’t legally equivalent to opening a piece of mail that isn’t your own. 

The only criminal act I know of directly involving email access is hacking. In this case, she was just given the password to multiple email addresses.




> My daughter's have a white friend that comes over. Good kid, love her to pieces, but every time she needs a spoon or a glass, she legit goes in every single drawer and cabinet in my kitchen....while we are all watching her with a little smile on her face the whole time. Irks the heck of out of me, lol. Some folks are just different I guess. One white friend wouldn't even hide that she would look thru my mail. Honestly, I wouldn't get the person in trouble at work if I was cool with them to any degree, but I'm gonna let you know and we ain't cool no more.



White people, from the young to the old, just don’t have any boundaries. It’s beyond just plain nosy. They think they have a right to everything.


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## Shula (Jun 17, 2018)

I agree. They need to get cracking because all of our laws governing the Internet and the digital world are leagues behind. They are just getting their act together on revenge porn. Zuckerberg being grilled by old men who still don't know what AOL dial up is a good way to show that these areas need attention. I hear you about the comparison being off but if a person's name is not on the email...I'm trusting you to be an ethical person of integrity and move along. Why is that so hard for some folks? And honestly, how many people who would do this would be completely at ease with someone going through their mail without permission? If you don't like it, don't do it. Personally for me, an act does not have to explicitly criminal, esp in this corrupt country where they bend the laws for whatever their end game is, to be bad. But I know I can be kind of rigid abut these things. It reminds of the whole Hilary #butheremails nonsense. Just came out a couple of days ago that Comey, the man himself, was  guilty of the same thing but at least Hilary had her own private servers. Manafort's techniques were to save emails as drafts and everybody who needed access had the password so nothing was sent. And Trump's lawyer used What's App, lol. I know this kind of Off Topic but life in general would be so much better if people decided to be decent human beings every day. I should start planting stuff in email that will hurt feelings and hashtag it #igottimetoday. Lol






Theresamonet said:


> This comparison is off because, email is not protected under the same federal laws as physical mail (USPS). So simply opening an email not addressed to you, to my knowledge, isn’t legally equivalent to opening a piece of mail that isn’t your own.
> 
> The only criminal act I know of directly involving email access is hacking. In this case, she was just given the password to multiple email addresses.
> 
> ...


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## Farida (Jun 18, 2018)

LiftedUp said:


> At my last job, they began using a new system for us to use to check our work history, salary history etc at the company.  Everyone's default password was their dob. I changed mine immediately upon getting the email. A couple of days later my coworker asked me if I changed my pw because she couldn't get in my account .
> 
> Jail time is a bit extreme but I'm happy that she got fired.  This is unacceptable.





Theresamonet said:


> You’ve made it clear that you don’t like nosy people, but being nosy, in essence, isn’t a crime. What she did was wrong and unprofessional, but I’m trying to figure out what she did that made it criminal. I’m guessing it was a violation of some technology usage agreement she signed with her employer, I don’t know. But she didn’t hack into those emails, IT basically gave everyone each other’s passwords, and I suppose the honor system was supposed to protect everyone’s privacy.


it may be state law and/or FERPA


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## 2Cute! (Jun 18, 2018)

Farida said:


> She either told someone or she saved that document about professor’s problems on their shared drives at work.
> 
> I filed a complaint against my employer and I used some documents they saved on our shared drives as evidence. *You’d be shocked to see what people are dumb enough to save on shared drives that the entire office can acccess.*



The bolded reminded me of a partner at a firm that I worked at. He saved what appeared to be a journal on a shared drive. He would write about his ex wife who ended up dating someone else before their divorce was final. 

He talked about her riding on the back of her new man’s motorcycle with her hair, “blowing in the wind.”  I mean, what he wrote and how he described her was like he just could not get over their relationship. It was so odd. 

Why would you document that stuff and keep it at work?

I kept my distance after that because he seemed unstable.


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## Lute (Jun 18, 2018)

The tactic she used is a form of hacking they call it "brute force". Just consistently guessing (trial and error) the password until you get it right. Fortunately for her she got it on the first or first few tries. Her login into another account is considered to be a "security breach".


When  IT first creates an account, they always give the default password and ask the user to change it. You be surprised how often staff doesn't change their password or change it to something way simpler and common for example "CompanyName123"

At my last tech job I can count on my fingers on how many passwords were like this.

She'll probably go to white collar jail. If there is one.


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## Farida (Jun 18, 2018)

2Cute! said:


> The bolded reminded me of a partner at a firm that I worked at. He saved what appeared to be a journal on a shared drive. He would write about his ex wife who ended up dating someone else before their divorce was final.
> 
> He talked about her riding on the back of her new man’s motorcycle with her hair, “blowing in the wind.”  I mean, what he wrote and how he described her was like he just could not get over their relationship. It was so odd.
> 
> ...


People save porn too. Like WTH?


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## momi (Jun 18, 2018)

Dee-Licious said:


> But “How she got caught?” is the question.
> 
> I shole hope she didn’t caught from running her mouth. That’s the kind of info to take to the grave.



I'd be willing to bet that is exactly what happened.  She ran her mouth to somebody because some things you just can't keep to yourself.  I doubt anyone would have known otherwise because clearly their IT department isn't very savvy.


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## Ms. Tarabotti (Jun 18, 2018)

RocStar said:


> If you are using your company's email, computer, network, etc., you should have no expectation that anything is private...it all belongs to the company (in most cases).



I don't have expectations that anything computer related that I do at work is completely private but I don't expect my co workers to be able to access my accounts or those of the higher ups.  She not only hacked into students and professors accounts but also that of school administrators. Who knows if there was sensitive information in the emails of the administrators such a performance reviews of professors, information about salaries, lawsuits, etc. She accessed and kept notes on information she didn't need for her job and had no right to.

My work email address was once inadvertently added to a list of emails belonging to the trustees (including the president of my company) of the place I work. The email contained a summary of a previous trustee meeting. I quickly emailed the sender and pointed out the mistake. Sure, it might have been interesting to hear 'inside information' but I didn't want to be accused  of anything.  

I know for a fact the our IT dept monitors the accounts- someone was fired for accessing porn sites; another was reprimanded for allowing his account to be used by someone else to make offensive statements. I'm afraid that all they get from my account are recipes and hair tips (sorry that I'm not more interesting, IT guys!).


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## FlowerHair (Jun 18, 2018)

Let’s see what the court says about this case, but if you weren’t specifically instructed by your boss to look into your coworkers’ emails, you are both unprofessional and not trustworthy as an employee.


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## Abibi (Jun 19, 2018)

She needed to be fired. She was probably planning to use her "notes" in a very Becky/Ms. Anne way to create a hostile work environment.


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## Zaz (Jun 19, 2018)

Sidebar, I hate these headlines that they run these days with completely unrelated info. I was thinking she hacked into emails to get Jeopardy answers but the two are entirely unrelated.


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## dicapr (Jun 19, 2018)

FlowerHair said:


> Let’s see what the court says about this case, but if you weren’t specifically instructed by your boss to look into your coworkers’ emails, you are both unprofessional and not trustworthy as an employee.



I completely understand terminating her employment. I just don’t think it’s worth jail time.


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## Shula (Jun 20, 2018)

dicapr said:


> I completely understand terminating her employment. I just don’t think it’s worth jail time.



I see your point but I'm also a "whoever is faithful in the least is also faithful in much" type. As someone else mentioned, she is untrustworthy to me now and where would she finally draw the line if at all? Also, what are you intentions with this info that has absolutely nothing to do with you? Am I to believe you're just nosy or up to no good? She's out of the trust tree. Proper boundaries teach discipline and maintain order; a lot of Beckies in particular need that lesson. She can get her Orange Is the New Black on to her heart's content, lol. She can do weekend jail stints and lose her own privacy and see how she likes it.


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