A College Township man is facing felony charges for allegedly commandeering the website of a longtime Centre County race after volunteering to redesign it.
The director of the Tussey Mountainback, an ultramarathon and distance relay held in Rothrock State Forest since 2000, told Ferguson Township police that Nicholas K. Bodner, 28, approached him about revamping the organization’s website in November 2023, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The race director, who owned the website since 2003, agreed, and gave Bodner the necessary information to transfer the tusseymountainback.com domain to a new host platform for the purpose of giving the site a new look and making it easier to manage, police wrote. Over the course of approximately a year, Bodner presented ideas for the new site to the race director, but they were unable to reach an agreement, according to the affidavit.
After the race director asked Bodner in February for the site access information so that he could activate it, Bodner allegedly refused to provide the passwords and other information related to the domain. He subsequently ceased contact with the race director, leaving the organization locked out of its site, according to the affidavit.
As a result, police wrote, the site remained out of service, damaging the race’s advertising efforts, limiting the number of sponsors and runners who registered and forcing the organization to create a new website with a different domain name.
Bodner was charged on Friday with third-degree felony counts of disruption of service, computer theft and computer trespass.
He was arraigned by District Judge Casey McClain and released on $5,000 unsecured bail.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 10.
