He is Brian Hogan, a semi-bearded 21-year-old college student in Redwood City, Calif., and he "regrets his mistake in not doing more to return the phone," according to his attorney, Jeffrey Bornstein. Apparently his only efforts to return the phone included trying to bring up Facebook before the phone shut down, and asking a friend to call Apple Care.
As has been previously reported, representatives of Apple showed up at Hogan's home shortly after Gizmodo broke the story and asked to search the premises before Hogan's roommate turned them away.
According to Bornstein, Hogan does a great deal of volunteer work involving orphans and is "the kind of young man that any parent would be proud to have as their son."
Of course, despite this, Hogan "is very definitely one of the people who is being looked at as a suspect in theft," San Mateo County chief deputy district attorney Stephen Wagstaffe told Wired. "Assuming there’s ultimately a crime here. That's what we're still gauging, is this a crime, is it a theft?"
Bornstein admits Hogan was the one who received the $5,000 payment from Gizmodo, but says he thought he was selling them the exclusive right to review the phone, not the phone itself.
CNET reported yesterday that Hogan enlisted the assistance of Sage Robert Wallower, a Berkley student and former Navy cryptologic technician, in shopping the phone around to different news outlets, and there is one more party involved who has not yet been identified.
In other news:
— Erin Barker, Digital Content Reporter, Light Reading Cable
Jon Stewart has a good take on the whole situation: http://ht.ly/1FeX7