Case closed: A former Cox Communications employee in Arizona admitted in court this week that he inserted a brief hard-core porn clip into the 2009 Super Bowl broadcast carried on Comcast's Tucson system.
Prosecutors said 39-year-old Frank Tanori Gonzalez, formerly a Cox supervisor, pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of computer tampering, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
Under the plea agreement, Gonzalez will serve three years' probation and pay a $1,000 fine. If he successfully completes his probation, the crime will be designated a misdemeanor rather than a felony, according to the newspaper.
Gonzalez was arrested in February 2011 by the FBI and police in Marana, Ariz., in connection with the 37-second sex video that interrupted the feed of NBC affiliate KVOA-TV delivered to Comcast subs.
Comcast Tucson receives the KVOA feed through an arrangement with Cox. Cox's Arizona subscribers were not exposed to the porn. On the Comcast system, only the standard-definition version of the KVOA feed was interrupted during the Feb. 1, 2009, broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII.
Gonzalez left Cox shortly after the Super Bowl incident. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 1, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
In the wake of the porn broadcast, Comcast offered a $10 credit to its 80,000 subscribers in the market whether or not they saw the porn.
The clip reportedly was from Wild Cherries 5, a movie on the Shorteez hard-core pay-per-view adult channel owned by Playboy Enterprises. The video showed a woman unzipping a man's pants to expose his penis, followed by a graphic sex act between the two.
The porn popped up on the Comcast system immediately after Arizona wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald scored a touchdown on a 64-yard pass, giving his team to a 23-20 lead over the Steelers with less than three minutes left in the game. The Cardinals ultimately lost, 27-23, after Pittsburgh drove 78 yards in the waning seconds and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hit Santonio Holmes for the winning TD.
