Ever wonder what happened to those guys who found an iPhone 4 prototype in a German beer garden in California last year and sold it to Gizmodo for $5,000? Yesterday, the tale reached a conclusion as Brian Hogan and his friend Sage Wallower both pleaded no contest to misdemeanor theft charges. The two receive one year of probation, are ordered to pay $250 each to Apple in restitution, and must complete 40 hours of community service. The 21 year old Hogan was the initial finder of the then unreleased phone, and Wallower, a 27-year-old Berkeley University student, reportedly assisted Hogan in shopping the discovery to various tech websites and publications.
San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe recommended a sentence including one year of prison time, but says “The judge considered that Wallower had served in the armed forces and Hogan was enrolled in San Jose State and neither had any criminal record, and decided that jail time wasn’t required…. This was a couple of youthful people who should have known better.”
Prosecutors also initially went after Gizmodo’s editor, Jason Chen, obtaining a search warrant for his residence, but ultimately dropped plans to file charges against him.
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