Ex-Denham staffer in trouble

A former Merced worker for state Senator Jeff Denham who pleaded no contest to petty theft is in hot water again, now facing allegations far more serious.

This time, she's accused of illegally accessing an e-mail account belonging to a co-worker she didn't get along with in Denham's office.

Kristine Hansen, 26, is facing one felony count of unlawful access to a computer system in Stanislaus County -- a crime with a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

Hansen's attorney said his client has pleaded not guilty to the charge. He claims she's the target of petty office quarreling that's become ugly.

Stanislaus County sheriff's deputies began investigating Hansen after alleged victim Mia Brudnicki, a district representative for Denham, reported someone had accessed her personal Yahoo! e-mail account without her authorization, according to a sheriff's affidavit for an arrest warrant.

Deputies learned Brudnicki's Yahoo! account was illegally accessed May 7 -- and an e-mail was sent from that account to Emily Towner, an office assistant for Denham. The contents of the e-mail resulted in the reprimanding of another Denham worker, executive assistant Dana Ferreira.

Detectives tracked the IP address of the computer used to forward the e-mail from Brudnicki's Yahoo! account to Comcast Cable Communications. Detectives faxed a search warrant on June 14 for subscriber information to Comcast, and investigators learned the IP address belonged to Forest Hansen -- the suspect's husband and son of Merced County Superior Court Judge Ronald Hansen.

Deputies served a search warrant July 8 at the couple's Merced residence and seized two laptop computers. A forensic exam was conducted on Kristine Hansen's laptop computer, and detectives found evidence it had been used to access Brudnicki's Yahoo! e-mail account on "potentially hundreds of occasions," according to the affidavit.

Additional evidence on the laptop indicated it was used to access Brudnicki's Facebook account as well.

Kristine Hansen, who worked as a district representative for Denham from March 8, 2004 until May 1, 2009, told detectives she was the only person who uses her laptop, saying she had issues with Brudnicki and Ferreira when she worked in Denham's office. "They hated me...They did everything they could to get me in trouble," Hansen told a detective, according to the affidavit.

James Eichbaum, the lead detective in the case, was asked to elaborate on what the e-mail allegedly sent by Hansen from Brudnicki's account said. He declined comment on that and other details of the case. "As long as this is an ongoing investigation, we're not going to be able to provide any more information other than that available through the affidavit or anything else made public at the moment," Eichbaum said.

Jim Kjol, Denham's chief of staff, was also contacted about the case. Kjol said he and Denham had no comment. Stanislaus County Deputy District Attorney Michael Houston, the prosecutor in the case, didn't return several calls from the Sun-Star to his office.

Hansen's attorney Jeffrey Tenenbaum said his client is facing the felony charge for what essentially amounts to a disagreement between co-workers, based on the sheriff's reports he's read. Although Tenenbaum wouldn't say specifically what the e-mail sent from Brudnicki's account said, he claims from reading sheriff's reports, it was about "bickering over job performance."

"There were some problems between some women in an office a year and a half ago. And it looks like these problems have extended out now over a disagreement regarding e-mails, which seems rather petty," Tenenbaum said. "But we're taking it very seriously because she is charged with a felony offense, and that's a frightening thing."