bookwyr.meThe FBI couldn't get my husband to decrypt his Tor nodes, so they told a judge he used his GRAPHICS DRIVER to access the "dark web" and jailed him PRE TRIAL for 3 years.
old.reddit.com/r/TOR/comments/1ni5drm/the_fbi_c…
cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/37530015
(Eastern District of Michigan - Detroit)
My husband, Conrad Rockenhaus, is wrongly incarcerated in a county jail. I’m posting this here because you are one of the few communities that will understand the full technical and political reality of how he ended up there.
My husband is a former Tor operator, and at one point, he ran some of the fastest relays and exit nodes in the world.
This nightmare began when he refused to help the FBI decrypt traffic from his exit nodes.
Months later, the government arrested him. Their official reason? A minor, non-violent CFAA charge from an old workplace dispute that had nothing to do with Tor.
In fact, the statute of limitations was just a couple of months from expiring. It was a clear pretext to target him.
That minor charge was all they needed to get him into the system. To deny him bail, a U.S. Probation Officer in Texas lied under oath, telling a judge that Conrad had installed a "Linux OS called Spice" to "knock out their monitoring software" and access the "dark web."
Here is the technical reality of their lie: The software was a standard SPICE graphics driver needed for his Ph.D. program. As many of you know, this is a basic utility for displaying graphics from a virtual machine. It is not an OS, has no connection to the dark web, and was technically incapable of interfering with their monitoring software.
The claim is a technical absurdity, equivalent to saying a mouse pad can hack a server.
Based on that lie alone, he was held in pre-trial detention for three years.
Now, the retaliation has escalated in Michigan. After I filed a formal complaint against his US probation officers for harassment, they used fraudulent warrants to jail my husband again.
During this violent arrest by US Marshals (who smashed in our windows and nearly shot my dog) he sustained a severe head injury that caused him to have a grand mal seizure in court. The jail’s “medical attention” was to ask him what year it was (he said 2023) and then send him back to his cell. He is being denied real medical care.
See videos:
- Feds threatening to sick dogs on us
- Feds beating by husband in the head
- Feds smashing in our windows
- Feds threaten to shoot my dog
- More threats to shoot my dogTo make matters worse, U.S. District Judge Stephen J. Murphy, III has created a procedural trap that has stripped my husband of his right to a lawyer to fight for his life, health, or innocence. He is trapped in a constitutional and medical crisis.
I am not asking for money. I am asking for your help to amplify this story. You understand the technical truth and why this fight is so important.
We have all the evidence: the court transcript of the false testimony, the fraudulent warrants, the proof of medical neglect. It’s documented on my website:
TL;DR: My husband, a former Tor operator, refused to help the FBI decrypt Tor traffic. They retaliated by using an old, unrelated CFAA offense to arrest him and then lied about him using a "graphics driver to access the dark web” to keep him in pre-trial detention for 3 years. Now he's been jailed again in Michigan on fraudulent violations, is being denied care for a head injury, and has no lawyer.
I need help getting the word out🙏
Adrienne Rockenhaus
For updates:
- Official Press
- X/Twitter
13 Comments
Comments from other communities
BlazeWho the fuck runs a tor exit node off their home internet connection?
People who feel that uncompromised Tor nodes are important enough to justify the risks, I imagine.
(But I doubt this man was doing that; a home internet connection is unlikely to to provide "some of the fastest relays and exit nodes in the world.")
This is one half of the story.
From tptacek on ycombinator:
OK, I think I found the original thing Rockenhaus was convicted of. Back in 2014, Rockenhaus worked for a travel booking company. He was fired. He used stale VPN access to connect back to the company's infrastructure, and then detached a SCSI LUN from the server cluster, crashing it. The company, not knowing he was involved, retained him to help diagnose and fix the problem. During the investigation, the company figured out he caused the crash, and terminated him again. He then somehow gained access to their disaster recovery facility and physically fucked up a bunch of servers. They were down a total of about 30 days and incurred $500k in losses.
(He plead this case out, so these are I guess uncontested claims).
Nothing of that seems to in any way justify tossing the full force of the State at the guy, to the point of causing life-threatening injuries *while at court*.
I didn’t say the government was justified in their actions. I just said we aren’t getting the full story. This guy is trying to cherry pick the facts to make himself look better.
I was gonna say, something smells off about this whole thing. I went through all the comments in the other Lemmy post and the original reddit post. Something isn't adding up.
Not defending the actions of the feds here, but still.
xxce2AAbGot to love a society where people are incarcerated for the presumed crimes (of others, no less) - and for having the temerity to not act as an unpaid law enforcement intern, of course.
I for one salute Mr. Rockenhaus for his uncompromising integrity and hope for his swift release.
From tptacek on ycombinator:
OK, I think I found the original thing Rockenhaus was convicted of. Back in 2014, Rockenhaus worked for a travel booking company. He was fired. He used stale VPN access to connect back to the company's infrastructure, and then detached a SCSI LUN from the server cluster, crashing it. The company, not knowing he was involved, retained him to help diagnose and fix the problem. During the investigation, the company figured out he caused the crash, and terminated him again. He then somehow gained access to their disaster recovery facility and physically fucked up a bunch of servers. They were down a total of about 30 days and incurred $500k in losses.
(He plead this case out, so these are I guess uncontested claims).
Yeah, not surprised. The original poster clearly “forgot” to mention some critical details in order to make themselves look like victims.
I wouldn’t doubt the FBI did some unethical things, but let’s not pretend the claim is trustworthy.
Seeing that CFAA charges almost always lead to convictions (proving a minor TOS violation seems pretty easy) pleading guilty often looks like the best way.
Not going to dispute you, allegedly deleting the whole backbone of a company is not a "minor workplace dispute". But Police conduct seems weird, too. Not unusual, just weird and a tad too many coincidences. Not sure we are seeing the whole picture.
He was found guilty of serious crimes, but they try to make this seem like it was just TOR. Read the other side before jumping to conclusions - the other things he did are bad enough to deserve prison time, and TOR doesn't even seem to be the FBI's motive.
I am not OP; I only cross-posted.
Upvoting to keep this comment at top, but I advise you to add at the beginning
Seen on Reddit: "
And another " at the end.
Thanks for xposting it btw.
Feel as though few people in comments here are acknowledging OP's claims, in a fundamental sense (please excuse cross-commenting, I've dropped an identical entry at https://lemmy.world/post/36001994).
And from OP's site
So to conclude, there's a pretty broad spread of bizarre circumstances and claims according to other commenters here and at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45261163, as well as OP's husband;
- Mr. Rockenhaus operated a Tor node, but has declined to assist the FBI in an investigation
- Mr. Rockenhaus' ex-wife and lawyer were/are colluding to torpedo his case, and ability to remain free on bail pending trial, as well as committing SS fraud and robbing him blind
- The FBI has seized the property belonging to the (marijuana-based) business of his current wife (OP), and surety as retaliation to a formal complaint filed against his newest probation officer
- The prosecution team has either willfully misrepresented his use of Linux applications as violations of release conditions, or is incompetent and unable to reconcile the basic functions of Linux programs
- Mr. Rockenhaus plead to charges in connection to what's alleged to be his sabotage of his former employer's business, to the tune of about $500K in damages (see entries related to probation above)
- One of the prosecution's exhibits at a previous hearing was a Google search for NAMBLA at 0200 - this one seems like an odd entry, as there doesn't appear to be any accusation of access to CSAM material in either his former or current charges or legal cases
Damn that whole story is a roller coaster.
I don't envy him the upcoming legal case against the Federal government and FBI, let alone the medical distress caused by existing TBI, head wound during his arrest, and deprivation of needed medication while in jail pending trial. This is one Hell of a doozie...
What is NAMBLA, dont care to google with your following comment.
They basically advocate for sexual relationships between boys and men.
Deleted by moderator
Yup. Steven Donziger.
America is the libertarian's paradox. A government that's often too small and too clumsy to effectively implement regulatory policy. But if officials do catch up with you, civil rights are a joke and the courts are a fig leaf justification for fascist violence.
You should put the tl;Dr at the top.
If you put it at the bottom, the only people who read it are the ones that did read it. Defeats the purpose
He was arrested for violating his parole, not for running a Tor node. Post is misinformation
Yeah... https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/53421257/21419985
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45262895