Troopers charged for illegally using Jim Thorpe woman’s Facebook

Two state troopers have been accused of illegally downloading messages from a Jim Thorpe woman’s Facebook account.

Court documents say that Erin Kathleen Cawley, 41, and Anthony Kenneth Kingsley, 32, both of Catasauqua, illegally used the woman’s Facebook account on multiple occasions in January 2017.

State Police at Fern Ridge filed felony charges of computer trespass and unlawful use of a computer against Cawley and Kingsley on Thursday.

According to court documents, the troopers illegally accessed the account of a Jim Thorpe woman, who admitted to having an affair with Kingsley while Cawley was pregnant with his child.

The hacking occurred in January 2017, which the woman told police was about five months after the affair ended.

She contacted Jim Thorpe Police in February, after she was informed that Cawley and Kingsley had shared screenshots of her private Facebook messages.

Jim Thorpe Police turned over the case to state police because the two suspects are state troopers.

The woman said she allowed Kingsley to use her Facebook account and password during their relationship, starting sometime around May 2016.

She said he would use the account to look at social events because he did not have his own account.

On July 28, 2016, Cawley confronted the woman about the affair outside her house in Jim Thorpe.

The woman said shortly after that, in early August, she and Kingsley agreed they would have no further contact.

On Jan. 27, 2017, the victim learned an acquaintance was in possession of paper copies of private messages exchanged between the acquaintance and the victim.

He told her that his wife received the copies from Kingsley.

The victim contacted Jim Thorpe Police, changed her Facebook password, and added additional security features.

She then gave state police at Fern Ridge permission to search her Facebook account activity. Logging in through a state police computer, she downloaded all account activity, and forwarded it to the trooper investigating the case.

They found that someone had been accessing the account on multiple occasions between 3-5 a.m. during the week prior.

The victim said she did not use her account at those times, and the activity was not authorized.

Troopers later determined the IP address that accessed the account belonged to Kingsley.

A few months later, investigators seized computers, tablets and cellphones belonging to Cawley and Kingsley under a search warrant.

They found that Cawley had deleted a Facebook message which seemed to indicate that Kingsley had accessed the victim’s Facebook page using the password he used during their affair.

Cawley and Kingsley were arraigned on the charges on Thursday, and released on $500 unsecured bail. Preliminary hearings have been tentatively scheduled for March 7.

The attorney for Cawley and Kingsley, Brett Riegel, could not be reached Friday night.