Suburban anarchist and ex-con charged with defacing CPD car during DNC protest

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Jeremy Hammond served a 10-year prison sentence in one of the largest computer hacking scandals in history.

He became a big name in the criminal hacking world beginning 20 years ago, eventually landing in federal prison for compromising personal information from a private intelligence company. Hammond branded this as electronic civil disobedience. The ex-con is facing new criminal charges for alleged hooligan-style behavior during Democratic National Convention protests.

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In the most violent clash with Chicago police during last week's DNC, that began outside the Israeli consulate in Chicago, authorities have charged Hammond with spray painting an anarchist symbol on a Chicago police patrol car, according to a police report obtained by the I-Team. The vandalism by Hammond is alleged to have occurred as a Chicago police officer watched and then took him into custody.

Hammond is no stranger to the criminal justice system. The I-Team began reporting on the Glendale Heights native when he was in his 20s, and the face behind the term "hacktivist."

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In 2013, Hammond was sentenced to a decade behind bars, after he led a group of hackers known as Anonymous to break into the private intelligence firm Stratfor. Investigators say they stole credit card data, personal records for hundreds of thousands of customers, making $700,000 in illegal charges.

Two years ago, Chicago federal judge Edmond Chang granted early release from court supervision to Hammond, citing his "successful transition back to society."

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Chicago police say that ended this year on New Year's Day, when he was accused of trying to take over the State Street bridge with a group of people, shooting off illegal explosives, and endangering officers and the public. The charges were later dismissed.

Then came the new charge during last Tuesday's frenzied pro-Palestinian demonstration.

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"One of the core conditions of supervised release is that the defendant not commit a crime, and it appears that he has done so, maybe on multiple occasions. We'll see where the cases ultimately land, but it wouldn't have passed muster if this had been before his term ended," said former federal prosecutor and ABC7 chief legal analyst Gil Soffer.

Hammond is free on bond until a court date in October. If he had been arrested on these charges while on probation, authorities would have been entitled to return him to prison simply for getting arrested. But he was free and clear of that case when taken into custody on New Year's Day and again last week at the DNC.

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