Trial delayed after ransomware attack on public defender’s office in Phoenix
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — At least one trial has been delayed after a ransomware attack hit the federal public defender’s office in Phoenix, which provides counsel to defendants in federal court.
According to a court filing on April 4, the office discovered what it called a “ransomware and data exfiltration event” that affected its file storage and data backup systems.
Jon Sands, a federal public defender, said in a motion to continue a trial that the office had “no access to its network and accordingly, staff are limited in the work they can do.”
Sands is representing Donald Day, Jr., an Arizona man who is accused of inciting violence related to a “religiously-motivated terrorist attack” in Australia in late 2022. The news of the delay and ransomware attack was first reported by the Australian Associated Press.
Day’s trial was initially set to begin on Tuesday, but Judge John Tuchi agreed to set a new trial date for September 15 due to the ransomware attack.
“Essentially, what it does is it locks you out of your own data and then they help hold you for ransom,” said the founder and CEO of Data Doctors, Ken Colburn.
He’s worked with computers since the 1980s and knows all too well how devastating ransomware can be. “This is exactly what they’ve been working on, you know, because there’s really more money in it for them. And this is not some random guy that just raised a lot about computers, these are organized crime units from around the world targeting the us,” said Colburn.
The Arizona Federal Public Defender’s office told our CBS partner in Salt Lake City that a Utah man’s death penalty case has also been delayed. Ralph Menzies has been on death row for more than 35 years for kidnapping and murdering a 26-year-old woman.
He is set to be executed by a firing squad pending a court review of his competency, but according to our CBS sister station, the public defender’s office says the hack wiped out a nearly complete 25-page draft his attorneys were preparing to file.
Once the brief is rewritten, a judge agreed to hear arguments in that case in May.
History of Donald Day case
Federal agents arrested Day in December 2023 after authorities said he incited violence following an attack in Wieambilla, Queensland, Australia. Two constables with the Queensland Police Service and an innocent bystander were killed when they walked into “a hail of gunfire” while investigating a missing persons report. Two men and one woman believed to be responsible for the shooting were shot and killed by Queensland Police.
Authorities in the U.S. said Day had several videos and posts online inciting violence, including one saying, “I’m an ex-con, who’s armed to the teeth.”
On the day of the shooting of the QPS officers, two of the gunmen reportedly posted a video titled “Don’t Be Afraid” to YouTube, saying “they came to kill us, and we killed them.” U.S. authorities said Day commented on the video under the username “Geronimo Bones,” saying he wished he were there with them to “do what I do best.”
Four days later, Day posted a video with the title of two of the shooters’ names, where he said, “the devils come for us they f****g die. It’s just that simple. We are free people, we are owned by no one.”
Day was indicted in the U.S. on charges of interstate threats, felon in possession of firearms, possession of an unregistered firearm, and threatening federal officials.
Arizona’s Family has reached out to the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Arizona for more information on the attack and to see how many other trials may have been affected.
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