What began as some a gossip column item about a local CBS news anchor (in Philadelphia, for that matter) sending racy photos of herself to a married sportscaster has turned into formal criminal charges against her then co-anchor for hacking into her computer.

Last May, word arrived that since-fired anchorwoman Alycia Lane has sent the NFL Network's Rich Eisen pics of herself in a bikini. Eisen, who is married, happened to share an email account with his wife; his wife replied to the email with some not so nice things to say.

But how did all of this info leak to the press? In not so surprising news, federal prosecutors say Lane's former co-anchor Larry Mendte was behind it all, sabotaging her career by snooping on her personal email and sending it to the gossips. Too bad hacking into somebody's computer is a crime!

First accessing Lane's email during her contract negotiations with CBS3, Mendte stands accused of snooping up until May 26, three days before the FBI raided his home and took his personal computer. And then they went through the logs.

Mendte allegedly checked Lane's personal account up to 10 times a day for a total of 537 timesover 146 days, signing on from home, work, and his Ocean City residence. Time of day didn't matter: Records show logins at 3:30am and 4:18am. He checked up on her every day after Lane was fired in January, forwarding that email to the Philadelphia Daily News gossip Dan Gross.

Mendte, who faces up to six months in prison if convicted, had had nearly all of his secret snooping exposed. He did it out of jealousy, angry that the younger and female Lane was getting so much attention. (Nevermind that Mendte earned $700,000 a year.) But one mystery remains: How he get her email password in the first place. Which is to say: Looks like we're not done covering this doozy just yet.

[Philly Inquirer]