BOSTON (WHDH) - A former supervisor of security operations for eBay’s European and Asian offices pleaded guilty Tuesday to his role in a cyberstalking campaign targeting a Natick couple who published a newsletter that eBay executives viewed as critical of the company, officials said.
Philip Cooke, 55, of San Jose, Calif., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses, United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling announced.
Cooke, who is also a former police captain in Santa Clara, Calif., is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 24, 2021.
Cooke conspired with six other former eBay employees — David Harville, 48, of New York City; James Baugh, 45, of San Jose, Calif.; Stephanie Popp, 32, of San Jose, Calif.; Veronica Zea, 26, of San Jose, Calif.; Stephanie Stockwell, 26, of Redwood City, Calif., and Brian Gilbert, 51, of San Jose, Calif. — in August 2019 to execute a three-part harassment campaign against the Natick couple, who are the editor and publisher of an online newsletter that covers ecommerce companies, Lelling said.
Several of the defendants allegedly ordered anonymous and disturbing deliveries to the victims’ home, including a preserved fetal pig, a bloody pig Halloween mask and a book on surviving the loss of a spouse.
They also sent private Twitter messages and public tweets criticizing the newsletter’s content and threatening to visit the victims in Natick, according to Lelling.
The charging documents allege that Cooke, Baugh, Gilbert, and Popp planned these messages to become increasingly disturbing, culminating with publishing the victims’ home address.
It is alleged that the same group intended then to have Gilbert, a former Santa Clara police captain, approach the victims with an offer to help stop the harassment that the defendants were secretly causing, in an effort to promote good will towards eBay.
The suspects began surveilling the victims in their home and community, but when the victims spotted the surveillance, they notified the Natick police, Lelling said.
Cooke and several of the other defendants allegedly discussed the possibility of presenting police with a false investigative lead to keep them from discovering video evidence that could link some of the deliveries to eBay employees.
They also reportedly deleted digital evidence.
The charges of conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses each carry a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 and restitution.
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