On Friday, former Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa pleaded guilty in front of a federal court, admitting he illegally hacked into the computer database of the Houston Astros’ organization in an attempt to learn if proprietary information had been stolen from the Cardinals.
Correa pleaded guilty to five counts brought against him in an indictment. The indictment was sealed up since Dec. 22nd. A sentencing date has been set for April 11th, which also turns out to be the date before the Cardinals season opener.
The count of which Correa specifically plead guilty to was unauthorized access to protected computer information. He could face a maximum of five years in prison for each count, plus a $250,000 fine, and restitution.
Both Major League Baseball and the St. Louis Cardinals organization responded to the events that have taken place.
From MLB: “Major League Baseball appreciates the efforts of federal law enforcement authorities in investigating the illegal breach of the Astros’ baseball operations database, and identifying the perpetrator of this crime,” MLB said in a written statement. “We anticipate that the authorities will share with us the results of their investigation at the appropriate time, and we will determine what further actions to take after receiving all the relevant information.”
On the other hand, the Cardinals released this brief statement: “Because the court proceedings in this matter will not be completed until Mr. Correa’s sentencing, we have been advised that it would be inappropriate to comment at this time.”
According to a Houston Chronicle reporter present in the courtroom, Correa said of his actions before U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes: “Stupid, I know.”
Correa was promoted to the position of scouting director of the Cardinals in December of 2014, and at the time period of when the computer breach took place, Correa was the director of baseball development for the Cardinals, in charge of their analytics department.
No other members of the Cardinals organization were identified as suspects in the incident that took place.
(Photo credit: Taka Yanagimoto/Cardinals)
