MONROE - The former tech director of the Albany School District is facing charges in Green County Circuit Court that he secretly tampered with the district's computer network to gain unauthorized access to confidential information while employed there.
Gregory J. Colden, 56, Monroe, also allegedly helped himself to district-owned electronics and kept them at his home in the 2200 block of 12th Avenue.
Colden is charged with a Class I felony count of receiving stolen property and two Class A misdemeanor counts of modifying and possessing data as a computer crime. If convicted, he could be imprisoned up to three years.
A signature bond of $5,000, signed April 13, stipulates that Colden have no contact with the Albany school district or its employees and administrators. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for May 26. Monroe attorney Timothy J. Burns is representing Colden.
The alleged crimes occurred during the 2012-2013 school year. The district fired Colden in May 2013. About a week later, the superintendent called police with suspicions about Colden's behavior.
According to the criminal complaint, Colden modified the district's email system so that emails sent to the superintendent, principal, bookkeeper and administrative secretary were copied blindly to his own district email address, without the knowledge of the senders or recipients.
The copied emails he received contained confidential information about individual students, the complaint states. He also allegedly created a profile for a fictitious student by the name of "Zac Dupree" to help him gain greater access within the district's computer network.
After Colden was terminated, police found that he contacted outside vendors to get passwords so he could still have access to the district network.
A search of Colden's home in June 2013 turned up district-owned electronics worth thousands of dollars, including a cable testing kit, shop vac, wireless router, projector, mounting kit and four computer tablets. In a report filed with the criminal complaint, investigators note that Colden cooperated fully with the search and surrendered some Albany school district property.
Police interviews with district staff members reveal Colden was not widely trusted by his fellow employees.
One employee told police Colden was unprofessional, gave the district bad advice about its computer system and took away perfectly good computers to be "destroyed."
Another employee told police that Colden initially punched a timeclock when he was hired in 2009 but later moved to a salaried position. She suspected that he didn't work the hours he said he was working.
Another employee told police Colden "kept very weird hours, sometimes being in the school at 3 or 4 in the morning."
Albany Superintendent Steven Guenther said Thursday that revelations about Colden's behavior were a shock and disappointment to the close-kint district of 365 students. The small staff operates with limited resources, he said.
As tech director, Colden "was the keymaster for a lot of information," Guenther said. Colden didn't just have keys to the school, "he had the electronic key."
"His position was one of great trust, and to undermine that is beyond my understanding," Guenther said.
Guenther said when he hired Colden in 2009, a routine criminal background check came up clean. State court records also show no criminal record for Colden.
A potential motive isn't immediately clear to Guenther.
"It's a mystery to me," he said. "It doesn't make any sense."
A LinkedIn profile for Colden indicates he was hired in Nov. 2013 as IT Director at Elspec North America in Freeport, where his duties include network administration and meter technology support for North America and Canada.
Gregory J. Colden, 56, Monroe, also allegedly helped himself to district-owned electronics and kept them at his home in the 2200 block of 12th Avenue.
Colden is charged with a Class I felony count of receiving stolen property and two Class A misdemeanor counts of modifying and possessing data as a computer crime. If convicted, he could be imprisoned up to three years.
A signature bond of $5,000, signed April 13, stipulates that Colden have no contact with the Albany school district or its employees and administrators. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for May 26. Monroe attorney Timothy J. Burns is representing Colden.
The alleged crimes occurred during the 2012-2013 school year. The district fired Colden in May 2013. About a week later, the superintendent called police with suspicions about Colden's behavior.
According to the criminal complaint, Colden modified the district's email system so that emails sent to the superintendent, principal, bookkeeper and administrative secretary were copied blindly to his own district email address, without the knowledge of the senders or recipients.
The copied emails he received contained confidential information about individual students, the complaint states. He also allegedly created a profile for a fictitious student by the name of "Zac Dupree" to help him gain greater access within the district's computer network.
After Colden was terminated, police found that he contacted outside vendors to get passwords so he could still have access to the district network.
A search of Colden's home in June 2013 turned up district-owned electronics worth thousands of dollars, including a cable testing kit, shop vac, wireless router, projector, mounting kit and four computer tablets. In a report filed with the criminal complaint, investigators note that Colden cooperated fully with the search and surrendered some Albany school district property.
Police interviews with district staff members reveal Colden was not widely trusted by his fellow employees.
One employee told police Colden was unprofessional, gave the district bad advice about its computer system and took away perfectly good computers to be "destroyed."
Another employee told police that Colden initially punched a timeclock when he was hired in 2009 but later moved to a salaried position. She suspected that he didn't work the hours he said he was working.
Another employee told police Colden "kept very weird hours, sometimes being in the school at 3 or 4 in the morning."
Albany Superintendent Steven Guenther said Thursday that revelations about Colden's behavior were a shock and disappointment to the close-kint district of 365 students. The small staff operates with limited resources, he said.
As tech director, Colden "was the keymaster for a lot of information," Guenther said. Colden didn't just have keys to the school, "he had the electronic key."
"His position was one of great trust, and to undermine that is beyond my understanding," Guenther said.
Guenther said when he hired Colden in 2009, a routine criminal background check came up clean. State court records also show no criminal record for Colden.
A potential motive isn't immediately clear to Guenther.
"It's a mystery to me," he said. "It doesn't make any sense."
A LinkedIn profile for Colden indicates he was hired in Nov. 2013 as IT Director at Elspec North America in Freeport, where his duties include network administration and meter technology support for North America and Canada.