“Two men pleaded no contest [yesterday] to theft of lost property in a case involving last year’s iPhone 4 prototype, which Apple claimed was so valuable that a price could not be placed on it,” Greg Sandoval and Declan McCullagh report for CNET. “A no-contest plea is effectively the same as pleading guilty. It allows the court to find the defendant guilty of a crime and results in a criminal conviction. The primary difference is that the admission of guilt can’t be used in a civil lawsuit against Hogan and Wallower, which Apple could choose to pursue.”
The men, who were accused of selling the device to gadget blog Gizmodo last year, were sentenced to one year of probation, 40 hours of public service, and a requirement that each pay $250 in restitution to Apple, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told CNET,” Sandoval and McCullagh report.
Brian Hogan, the man who allegedly found the prototype in a bar, and Sage Wallower, who allegedly helped Hogan shop the device around to technology sites, were charged with misdemeanor theft in early August,” Sandoval and McCullagh report. “They allegedly obtained the prototype iPhone 4 after Robert Gray Powell, an Apple computer engineer who was 28 years old at the time, left it in a German beer garden in Redwood City, Calif., about half an hour’s drive from Apple’s Cupertino headquarters.”
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