West New York Mayor Dr. Felix Roque was acquitted this afternoon of federal computer hacking charges, to the cheers of supporters who packed the Newark courtroom.

The news wasn't all good, however, for the 56-year-old mayor. While he celebrated, just a few feet away his son, tears welled up in the eyes of his son, Joseph, 23, who was found guilty of hacking the website of a political foe of his father.

Both Roques were tried on charged that in February 2012 they illegally accessed and took down the "Recall Roque" website that created by Hudson County Freeholder Jose Munoz under a fictitious name. The second count was that the two conspired in the illegal activity.

It took the jury roughly one day of deliberating to return the verdicts: Joseph Roque was convicted of computer hacking and acquitted of conspiracy. His father, who was elected in 2011, was acquitted on both counts. A defense attorney said that the maximum sentence for Joseph Roque is one year.

Emotions poured out after the verdicts were announced, at first a collective sigh of relief, and then hugs and tears among the group loyal to the West New York mayor.

It became apparent during the course of the two-week trial that the defense strategy was to allow Joseph Roque, then a 22-year-old student at Hofstra University in New York, to take the fall. His actions -- accessing the email addresses and passwords, and disabling the website and deleting its contents -- were never contested.

The defense was two-fold:

-- an attack on Munoz, who had been cooperating with the FBI in other federal investigations in Hudson County at the time of the hacking, as a "treacherous" liar;

-- and a staunch defense of the mayor's ignorance of the how his son obtained the information.

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