A woman convicted of using a Prostate Cancer Foundation computer account without permission to pressure the charity into paying her friend $187,500 had her conviction overturned Friday.
The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the jury verdict against Frances Eddings, a Florida resident who convinced her Lehigh Valley friend to pursue the scheme against the charity.
According to the Third Circuit ruling, Jude Denis of Upper Macungie Township started working for the foundation on Aug. 14, 2014. She believed she was hired for a full-time job, but learned her job was a temporary, contract position with the potential to become a full-time job, the judges wrote. She backed out of the job on Aug. 21, 2014, according to court records.
Denis submitted an invoice for a few thousand dollars to cover the time she worked and her expenses, records say. When the foundation didn’t pay her invoice, Eddings allegedly convinced Denis to download sensitive documents from one of the foundation board members and send them to her. Eddings then threatened the board member, saying she’d release the thousands of documents unless Denis was paid $150,000 in “back pay” plus a $37,500 “recovery fee” for Eddings.
The foundation shut off Denis’ access to the foundation board member’s account on Oct. 1, 2014, and reported Denis and Eddings to the FBI, records say.
In the dissenting 2-1 opinion, Third Circuit Court Judge Thomas L. Ambro said it’s inaccurate to say Denis used the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s account without authorization. Although she resigned, no one from the foundation expressly forbade her from using the computer.
Some employees retain the use of a computer after they resign, he wrote. Sometimes they convince an employer to give them a raise to convince them to rescind the resignation, he wrote.
Denis didn’t hack into the foundation’s system. She was authorized to use it when she was issued her account. The law is misapplied here, Ambro wrote.
“We have cautioned that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act can become a hammer in search of a nail. This is another such case,” Ambro wrote.
He said Denis’ and Eddings’ behavior was inappropriate but not criminal. Prosecutors didn’t charge them with extortion because they didn’t have enough evidence to support the charge, he wrote.
“We do not condone the conduct of either Denis or Eddings. Far from it. But we hold that, on this record, Eddings did not violate (the law),” Ambro wrote on behalf of himself and Judge Stephanos Bibas.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office had no comment on the Third Circuit’s decision.
Judge Tamika R. Montgomery-Reeves wrote a dissenting opinion. She believes that when Eddings resigned from the foundation, she renounced her permission to use the foundation’s account.
Eddings was 68 years old when she was convicted at trial in April 2022. She was sentenced in October 2023 to six months of house arrest to be served concurrently with 18 months of probation, according to online federal court records.
Denis died on July 17, 2022. She was convicted of unauthorized use of a computer but died before she could be sentenced.
Eddings was represented at trial and during her appeal by attorneys Benjamin Cooper of Philadelphia and Eric Dowdle of Allentown.
The Third Circuit order remanded the case back to U.S. District Court in December. On Friday, Jan. 30, U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Leeson Jr. vacated the judgment against Eddings.