Wise allegedly used a Spoofcard, which lets you send fake caller ID info with your calls, to gain access to the voicemails of interior designer Nina Freudenberger. According to the criminal complaint against her, she told the police, "I used the Spoofcard to get into Nina's voicemails."

Now Wise's lawyer, Mark Jay Heller, is telling Women's Wear Daily [sub. req'd] that there's nothing illegal about that:

He said authorities had misapplied new laws governing technology. The eavesdropping charge should be dismissed because, among other reasons, Wise had not overheard or recorded a conversation, Heller said. Of the computer trespass charge, he said authorities had not alleged or proven, "that Ali engaged in any ‘unauthorized' conduct in conjunction with a computer or computer service."

That sounds strange! Wise is charged with violations of Sections 156.10(1) and 250.05 of the New York penal code. Section 256.05 governs eavesdropping and wiretapping, and makes it a crime to "unlawfully engage in wiretapping, mechanical overhearing of a conversation, or intercepting or accessing of an electronic communication." An "electronic communication" is defined by the law to exclude telephonic messages, which would presumably rule out voicemails. "Mechanical overhearing" is defined by the law in such a way as to require a "conversation or discussion" to be overheard, which isn't the case if voicemails were the only thing being listened to. So that leaves "wiretapping," which the law defines as "the intentional overhearing or recording of a telephonic or telegraphic communication."

Voicemails are undoubtedly telephonic communications. Did Wise record them? It's unclear from the complaint, but if she did, then the law applies to her behavior. But even if she didn't, does listening to voicemails count as "overhearing" them? It certainly counts as hearing them. And the significance of the prefix "over-" seems like a very thin reed to hang a defense on. Heller is apparently arguing that "overhearing" something requires a live, ongoing two-way conversation. But Webster's—to which any judge would turn if confronted by such an argument—defines "overhear" as "to hear without the speaker's knowledge or intention." Which would be the case here. Case law exploring the definition of "overhear" as relates to the wiretapping stature might exist, but it seems unlikely at first blush that the word is a get out jail free card for Wise.

As for the other charge, computer trespass: It requires another crime, so if Wise isn't guilty of wiretapping, she's off the hook for trespass, too. But if she is, then she's also guilty of computer trespass if she "knowingly use[d] or cause[d] to be used a computer or computer service without authorization" in the commission of the crime. A "computer" is defined by the statute as:

A device or group of devices which, by manipulation of electronic, magnetic, optical or electrochemical impulses, pursuant to a computer program, can automatically perform arithmetic, logical, storage or retrieval operations with or on computer data.

A "computer service" is "any and all services provided by or through the facilities of any computer communication system allowing the input, output, examination, or transfer, of computer data or computer programs from one computer to another." It's hard to see how the servers that housed Freudenberger's voicemails in digital format wouldn't count as computers under the above definition. And it's hard to see how the system by which her cell phone—or Wise's—gained access to them wouldn't qualify as a "computer system." And if she used either of them without authorization in commission of a felony like wiretapping, well, then, that's illegal.

Wise is accused of illegally gaining access to the voicemail of interior designed Nina Freudenberger.

But a source familiar with the investigation says the district attorney's office is looking at five or more other possible victims of Wise's alleged hacking.

"Ali has been harassing my boyfriend and I since November," one of the alleged victims, who's gone to the police but requested anonymity, tells Page Six. "I was getting phantom phone calls and losing voice mails. She was also sending e-mails to my boyfriend's publicist and posting comments about us online. I went so far as to hire a private investigator to figure out what was going on."

Freudenberger told the Post that she's never even met Wise, and suggests she was targeted because the two share an ex-boyfriend in Downtown Records founder Josh Deutsch. Another source told the paper: "Ali has basically been targeting people who have been with [former boyfriend] Jason [Pomeranc] and her ex-boyfriends."

And yesterday Cityfile reported that Wise's alleged ex-boyfriend obsession extends beyond the digital realm and into defamation and, apparently, physical threats:

"Wise's antics go beyond what's stated," an anonymous tipster tells us by email. "For that reason there's a restraining order in place against her now, effectual for 5 years. And there were multiple victims of her hacking hobby. A defamation suit is under way in addition to the felony charge of computer fraud she already faces. There are piles of irrefutable evidence against her."

Wise, 32, allegedly used a Spoofcard to bypass the security features on Freudenberger's voicemail, snooping on her from January to March of 2008. She was arrested on Tuesday night on felony charges of computer trespass and eavesdropping, and, according to the complaint, confessed to the arresting officers: "I used the Spoofcard to get into Nina's voicemails."

She was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court yesterday and has a court appearance scheduled in October. According to the New York Daily News, "Wise's breakup from hotelier Jason Pomeranc six months ago was fodder for media gossip," but they must mean the old-fashioned, word-of-mouth kind, because we can't find anything out there on their parting of ways (let us know if you can).

Freudenberger is a Munich-born decorator-to-the-socialites who once lived in an apartment painted entirely in a color called "dead salmon" and had a mechanic spray-paint a Louis XIV dresser with lacquer, according to Page Six magazine. We have no clue why Wise would want to listen to Freudenberger's voicemails, or why Wise would get caught for it more than a year after the fact. Do you?

Here's the complaint:

Knives out for D&G [Guardian]