Without the internet, I might not have ever met my current boyfriend.

Published 8:00 am Monday, December 27, 2010

Without the internet, I might not have ever met my current boyfriend. Or the boyfriend before him, or the one before him. My friend Ivan might not have met his wife and my buddy X would’ve had a whole lot less easy-access ass. But just as technology has made it easier to meet someone to love, it’s also made it a whole lot simpler to catch a cheating partner. Between cellphone records, email accounts and browser histories, who needs to hire a private detective anymore? I’m sure that’s what Michigan resident Leon Walker thought when he got suspicious about his wife’s behavior and took a look-see through her email accounts. Only instead of a quick divorce from his cheating spouse, he’s being charged with a felony and facing five years in the clink.Um, what? It’s not like he opened her snail mail . . . or is it? According to a Michigan statute, it’s illegal to:”Access or cause access to be made to a computer program, computer, computer system or computer network to acquire, alter, damage delete or destroy property or otherwise use the service of a computer program, computer, computer system or computer network.”Walker, who was the woman’s third husband, discovered she was secretly banging her second husband. Not only was this sketchy, this second husband had been arrested for beating the crap out of her in front of her small son (who she had by her first husband). So Walker was not only pissed off that his wife was cheating (and with a total asshole), but he also worried about the kid. And so contacted the first husband to give him the head’s up so he could step in and protect his son. You’d think that if you were cold busted cheating on your husband you might try denying the affair or maybe apologizing, but Clara Walker wasn’t your typical busted spouse. Instead of being sad, she got mad and turned it around on her cuckolded husband and had him arrested for snooping! Wow. That takes some stones.According to the story in the Detroit Free Press, about 45% of divorce cases involve some sort of online fact gathering. I personally can think of three different friends who busted their partners this way. And that’s just off the top of my head. I even helped one of them by guessing her husband’s password (their kid’s name–classy!). The prosecutor is calling Walker a “hacker,” which is ridiculous, since this would make pretty much everyone I know a hacker, including one friend who hasn’t upgraded her social media since Friendster. I can’t imagine any jury is going to convict a guy who looked at his wife’s email–on a shared computer that he paid for–and discovered she was cheating. Walker’s trial begins in February so I guess we’ll find out then.