Debra Wong Yang
United States Attorney
Central District of California
United States Courthouse
312 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, California 90012
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January 25, 2006
Thom Mrozek (213) 894-6947
Los Angeles, CA - Seven defendants have pleaded guilty to federal charges of making and distributing copies of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith prior to its release in May 2005, criminal conduct which allowed an eighth person to obtain the film and upload it onto the Internet the night before the film's opening.
The seven defendants pleaded guilty to various misdemeanor charges on Tuesday afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.
Albert Valente, 28, of Lakewood, California, pleaded guilty to one count of copying and distributing a copyrighted work, when, during the week before Star Wars opened worldwide, he took a copy of the Star Wars film from the post-production facility where he worked at the time and loaned it to a friend, Jessie Lumada.
Lumada, 28, of Long Beach, California, pleaded guilty to one count of distributing the Star Wars film when he took the copy given to him and gave it to a friend, Ramon G. Valdez.
Valdez, 30, also of Long Beach, California, pleaded guilty to one count of distributing the Star Wars film for his actions in bringing the movie to the cable company where he worked, and allowing his co-workers to copy the movie onto the company's internal network and then burn copies for workers who wanted them.
Michael Fousse, 42, of Monrovia, California; Dwight Wayne Sityar, 27, of La Crescenta, California; and Stephani Gima, 25, of Los Angeles, each pleaded guilty to one count of either distributing or copying the Star Wars film. These three worked with Valdez at the cable company. Fousse uploaded the movie onto the company's internal network. Sityar burned several copies of the movie, then stored it on the network, where Gima accessed the pirated film. Gima took her copy and gave it to her brother-in-law, Joel De Sagun Dimaano.
Dimaano, 33, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to one count of distributing the Star Wars film when he brought his copy into MGM Studios, where he worked at the time, and loaned his copy to co-worker Marc Hoaglin.
Hoaglin uploaded the Star Wars movie onto the Internet the night before the movie opened in theatres worldwide. On December 13, 2005, Hoaglin pleaded guilty to a felony count of uploading a pre-release copyrighted work onto the Internet. Hoaglin faces up to three years in federal custody when he is sentenced on March 6.
All seven of the defendants who pleaded guilty yesterday face up to one year in prison. They are all scheduled to be sentenced by United States Magistrate Judge Carla Woehrle on April 12.
This case was investigated by the Los Angeles Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Release No. 06-008
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