Thursday was sentencing day in Federal Court for former Clay County Sheriff Miles Slack, following his guilty plea earlier in the year to felony charges of wiretapping.
Slack was facing the possibility of up to five years in federal prison and a large fine after admitting to illegally placing a keystroke logger on his ex-wife’s work computer in the Clay Magistrate’s office, wishing to monitor her personal emails and chat room conversations.
U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver said he had received multiple letters of support from the community of Clay as well as a petition bearing over 700 signatures. Slack’s ex-wife Lisa, one of two victims in this case, gave an emotional plea to the judge on Slack’s behalf stating that he was a good man who had made a mistake.
Judge Copenhaver stressed that although court information was obtained on the tracking device, he did not believe it was Slack’s intent to gather that particular information. Copenhaver also took into account that Slack had a lifetime of civil obedience, that he had lost his law enforcement career due to his actions and that in spite of this; the majority of his home community supported him in this matter.
Slack spoke to the Judge, saying “I do realize the seriousness of my actions. If I could take them back I would. I really made a mistake. I’m very sorry that I did that, sir.”
Considering all sides of the case, Judge Copenhaver gave a final sentencing of two years’ probation and $1,000.00 fine to Miles Slack.
