19-Year-Old Michigan Mayor in Trouble Over Internet Prank

Michael Sessions, one of the youngest mayors ever elected in the United States, pleaded no contest to "malicious annoyance by writing" Monday in Hillsdale County District Court. His prank, a misdemeanor, against his former campaign manager Brandon Thomas earned him 40 hours of community service.

Sessions garnered worldwide fame as his $700 budget write-in campaign earned him the Hillsdale, Mich., mayor's job at the age of 18. Constant news coverage and the reading of Top 10 list on the Late Show with David Letterman kept the newly elected Mayor in the spotlight. Sessions beat incumbent Mayor Doug Ingles by two votes after a recount found no new votes for Ingles and disqualified 62 votes for Sessions.

According to court documents and Hillsdale County Prosecutor Neal Brady, the Hillsdale Daily News reported that, Sessions now 19, used his home computer to hack into the Eastern Michigan University computer network to delete Thomas' My Space and AOL AIM accounts. He also sent an e-mail posing as someone else to campus authorities casting aspersions on Thomas. Sessions also sent an e-mail to Thomas' mother posing has her son's roommate alerting her of Brandon's "unhealthy academic lifestyle."

Brady said EMU officials followed up on the e-mails and once they discovered the source, referred the case to the Michigan State Police.

Sessions admitted his wrongdoing in a press release given to the Hillsdale Daily News before Monday night's City Council meeting. Attorney David M. Blanchard of Nacht and Associates of Ann Arbor is representing him.

"Even though I acted childish, I am still determined to do the adult thing and take responsibility in which I already accepted the punishment," he stated in the release. Sessions said he understands his actions have seemed to prove his critics right that his youth would be an issue.