Yesterday, news broke that the FBI raided the home of Deric Lostutter in April. Deric is most famously known as KYAnonymous, the Anonymous operative who leaked a video where the young men who were later convicted of raping an unconscious teenager girl in Steubenville, Ohio were bragging about what they did in a disgustingly proud manner. The raid of Deric's home was said to be in connection to the hacking of a site called Rollredroll, a fan site for the Steubenville football team. It was defaced by Anonymous during the heat of the story.
Even though another hacker, who goes by BatCat, has taken credit for that hack, the FBI is obviously of the mind that Deric is responsible or can at least provide more information on how it all went down. Given the nature of Anoymous's actions in the case of Steubenville, Deric's Facebook and Twitter profiles are full of posts and retweets in support of what he did to help bring these rapists to justice. While he has not been officially indicted, he is expecting that to happen any day now. He could face up to a decade of prison time. The rapists were only sentenced to one and two years respectively. To figure out more, I called Deric earlier this afternoon to chat with him about his current situation.
VICE: How did you end up with the YouTube video that helped convict the Steubenville rapists?
Deric: Basically, an account was created by a resident of Steubenville who was like, "I have something for you but I don't want anything to come out about my identity," and I was like, "Okay, what is it?" He was like, "It's a video of the players," and I was like, "Oh shit, give it to me," and he said, "Alright, I don't want anything coming back to me," and I was like, "I don't even want to know your name, I'm just glad you didn't give it to somebody else," and he was like, "Yeah, I was afraid the cops would delete it, and it would disappear forever if I gave it to them," and I was like, "Well, I'll make sure that won't happen."
Were you receiving a lot of tips at the time?
I was receiving a whole lot of tips - some valid, some not valid.
What was the feedback like when you finally got that video out?
It was almost instantaneous. It went viral immediately. A lot of people were disgusted, including myself, with the video's content.
Right. How did the op proceed after that?
Rallies were the main focus. Raising enough media attention so that the FBI and the Department of Justice would get involved, and they ended up doing that. That was the ultimate goal.
Were you contacted by law enforcement at any point through the Steubenville operation?
No.
In between the raid on your home and the arrests of the rapists, what have you been up to?
I'm a hip hop artist, so I make music and music videos, and I've been working on my next album. Hanging out on my farm, fishing, hunting, drinking beer...
Can you walk me through the allegations you're facing now?
They are accusing me of being involved in the hack of Rollredroll.com. They haven't officially indicted me. They haven't officially tried to press charges. They are sending a target letter, meaning they are going to try to indict me in front of a grand jury.
At what point did your identity become revealed as one of the Anons involved in Steubenville?
It was leaked online about three months prior to the raid.
You don't think the Steubenville operation has anything to do with the raid?
The search warrant they gave me said: "the hack of rollredroll.com, all communications relating to Batcat", which is the guy who admitted sole responsibility for the hack in the article, which again brings up the question of why the hell was I raided if this guy is publicly online taking all credit for the hacks and he's the only one who committed crimes. I put the screenshot on my Twitter earlier today and on my Facebook.
Why do you think you were raided if you had nothing to do with this?
When people think Steubenville, they think KY, they don't think Batcat. And that's my downfall because they want to make an example out of who the public recognizes. They want to say, "Don't question our law enforcement, don't question our government." Just turn a blind eye. And that's not what this country was founded on -- this country was founded on questioning our government and keeping it transparent.
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Follow Patrick on Twitter: @patrickmcguire
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