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Hacking case against Basalt roofer dismissed

Jason Auslander
The Aspen Times

The District Attorney’s Office on Friday dismissed its case against the owner of a Basalt roofing company accused of hacking into a competitor’s computer files and using the information to undercut and sabotage the competitor’s bids.

Gregg Mackey, owner of Red Eagle Roofing, was first charged with a computer crime felony equal to that of second-degree murder, though the charge was significantly downgraded to a far lesser felony a few months later.

On Friday, prosecutor Don Nottingham dismissed the case completely.



“There is evidence that Umbrella Roofing bids were accessed by Red Eagle and that Red Eagle took estimates of Umbrella’s that did not belong to them,” Nottingham said. “Even though Mackey is the owner [of Red Eagle], we can’t tie him directly enough to those actions to support criminal charges.”

A former supervisor at Red Eagle, Richard Acerra, continues to face a felony computer crime charge in the case, a misdemeanor computer crime charge and one count of theft, however.



“I’m not dismissing Mr. Acerra’s case at this time,” Nottingham said Friday.

Ryan Kalamaya, Mackey’s lawyer, said in an emailed statement Friday that “there was no evidence that Mr. Mackey hacked into his competitor’s software system” and “no credible evidence that Mr. Mackey’s competitor lost any business let alone at the hands of Mr. Mackey.”

“Unfortunately, these serious allegations have come at a serious cost to Mr. Mackey,” according to the statement. “He has lost a considerable amount of business due to these allegations.

“He has spent countless [sleepless) nights wondering if he would go to jail for something he did not do.”

Kalamaya said in December that Mackey didn’t know the hacked information was being used on bids and fired Acerra once he realized what was happening.

Acerra, however, told the Times in December the whole scheme was Mackey’s idea.

“That direction [to hack the bids] came from the owner, Gregg Mackey,” Acerra said at the time. “Gregg was fully aware of everything. I’m being railroaded — you can print that.”

jauslander@aspentimes.com


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