Schmidt Found Dead
David Hans Schmidt, who plead guilty last month to attempting to extort Tom Cruise, was found dead of an apparent suicide in his Phoenix, Arizpna home on Friday. Schmidt was under house arrest after agreeing to plead guilty to a $1 million extortion fiasco, using Tom Cruise’s stolen wedding photos. “Authorities went to Schmidt’s Phoenix home after a tracking device on him had not moved and he hadn’t checked in,” said police spokesman, Lt. Anthony Lopez. Schmidt was facing up to two years in prison after he had agreed to a plea agreement in the case. His attorney, Nancy Kardon, said she had spoken to Schmidt earlier this week and was preparing for an Oct. 11 hearing in federal court where he would enter his formal guilty plea to attempted extortion. She said she had planned to ask for probation.”I was greatly saddened by his loss and I found him to be a very kind man,” Kardon said. He was contacted by Marc Lewis Gittleman who had obtained the wedding photos after recovering them from a damaged computer hard drive brought in for repair by a photographer. Schmidt emailed Cruise with samples of the photos, and asked for more than $1 million to keep them off the market. Schmidt had brokered some of Hollywood’s most infamous deals in recent years, including the Dustin Diamond sex tape, Tonya Harding honeymoon sex tape, a Colin Farrell sex tape and other scandals.
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