Snoop Crackdown Continues

MAY 14--Another Department of State employee has been charged with illegally accessing the passport application records of celebrities. Yvette Burrison, a 45-year-old passport specialist who worked from a consular affairs office in Charleston, South Carolina, was named yesterday in a criminal information charging her with unauthorized computer access, a felony. According to the U.S. District Court filing, a copy of which you'll find here, Burrison improperly accessed the records of 'various celebrities, actors, musicians, comedians, models, athletes, family members, and other individuals' over a nearly four-year period beginning in January 2003. In a brief interview, Burrison declined to comment about her case. Burrison is the fourth Department of State employee to have been charged in recent months with illegally tapping into the Passport Information Electronic Records System. Each of the workers previously charged have cut plea deals and been sentenced to probation. (1 page)