Point Reyes Light - December 24, 2003

Ex-employee of Lucasfilm sentenced to jail

By Ivan Gale

A Marin Superior Court judge last Thursday sentenced former Lucasfilm employee Shea O’Brien Foley, 31, to a year in county jail for embezzling intellectual property and movie images from the Star Wars film series.

When sentencing Foley, Judge Verna Adams also prohibited his using the Internet, where he currently runs a website, <www.sheafoley.com>, that sells paintings and t-shirts featuring air-brush renderings of pinup girls and pictures of Star Wars characters.

The unauthorized sale of Star Wars merchandise is a federal offense and separate from embezzlement, said deputy district attorney Andy Perez, and Lucasfilm may wish to press charges on in federal court too.

Perez said that Foley’s website’s offering Star Wars images for sale was not itself an issue in the local case but was brought up during sentencing "to illustrate how Foley could have commercially used the images that he stole."

In August, Foley pled guilty to five felony charges:

• Two counts of grand theft for stealing the entire archive of Star Wars sound effects and the Star Wars Episode II digital video files.

• Three counts of illegally accessing Lucasfilm’s computer server to wrongfully download images and sound effects onto his personal laptop computer.

As a result of a plea bargain, other felony charges were dropped. The other charges dealt with the theft of various Star Wars Episode II items, including a script, storyboards, digital images, concept art and photographs, and the Star Wars Episode II soundtrack.

Deputy DA Perez said that between September 2000 and April 2002, Foley worked as a post-production assistant for Lucasfilm at Skywalker Ranch. His non-technical position was not supposed to allow him access to the Lucasfilm’s server.

Ex-employee’s password

However, Foley used a former employee’s password to access the server and download the restricted files. "Whether it was during course of a workday or staying late at night, he would get onto server and copy [the files] onto his laptop," said Perez.

A search of Foley’s residences in Marin and Southern California turned up numerous items stolen from Lucasfilm, the deputy DA Ed Berbarian said.

Foley was fired in April 2002 when an online movie critic reviewed Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones before it was released in theaters. Foley continues to deny leaking the movie to the critic, and he has not been charged with doing so.

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