Stephanie Jass, former ‘Jeopardy!’ champ, pleads guilty to felony computer hacking

Stephanie Jass, a former Adrian College professor who set the record in 2012 for the most consecutive wins by a female “Jeopardy!” contestant, had entered a guilty plea in connection with hacking into the email accounts of several of the school’s administrators, faculty members and students.

Ms. Jass, 48, pleaded guilty to one felony count of unauthorized access to a computer, program or network stemming from abusing a campus-wide password reset that happened in the spring of 2017, news outlets reported following her hearing Wednesday at Lenawee County Circuit in Adrian, Michigan.

Michigan State Police previously said that Ms. Jass admitted last year that she abused the password reset to gain access to the email accounts of Adrian College President Jeffrey Docking, outgoing Vice President Agnes Caldwell, several unnamed fellow faculty members and students including her stepson, MLive reported.

“Basically there was a technology incident at Adrian College that caused the college to send out a campus-wide reset. When they did that there was a temporary password. Anyone could have gotten into anyone else’s e-mail at that point,” Lenawee County prosecutor Burke Castleberry Jr. explained previously.

Indeed, the former American history professor told a co-worker at the college the she exploited the bug to access messages meant for the school’s president, ultimately prompting her termination and a criminal probe that culminated in Wednesday’s guilty plea.

“Yes, I knew what I was doing,” Ms. Jasson told Lenawee County Circuit Judge Margaret M.S. Noe, Lenawee County’s Daily Telegram reported after Wednesday’s hearing.

Judge Noe has scheduled a sentencing hearing for July 20, at which point Ms. Jass will face a maximum of five years behind bars and a $10,000 fine, the outlets reported. Her plea agreement dismissed a second felony count that carried a maximum punishment of 10 years imprisonment, the reports said.

Raymond Correll, Ms. Jass’ defense attorney, said he intends to ask for a delayed sentence, MLive reported.

“Adrian College wishes to sincerely thank the Michigan State Police, specifically its Cyber Command Center and the Lenawee County Prosecutor’s Office for their thorough investigation and for ultimately bringing charges and a conviction in this crime,” the school said in a statement. “Privacy rights are a fundamental principle of our American democracy and Adrian College stands with those who protect these rights.”

Ms. Jass made waves prior to her hacking for her record-setting stint on the long-running television game show “Jeopardy!” She won seven games in a row in 2012, making her for a moment “the winningest woman contestant” in the program’s history, The Daily Telegram reported.