Techrights

Adrienne Rockenhaus Says Her Husband Was Arrested for Running Tor and Denied Basic Rights in the United States

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Sep 16, 2025

For greater exposure: (which is what she wants)

I’m writing to you because my husband, Conrad Rockenhaus, was a member of your community. He was a long-time Tor relay operator, and he is now in serious danger. I believe you are one of the few groups who will truly understand why.

Conrad’s ordeal began when he refused to help the FBI decrypt traffic from his exit nodes. Months later, the government arrested him. Their official reason was a minor, non-violent CFAA charge from a workplace dispute that had nothing to do with Tor. He was convicted of a single count (taking down the network of his former employer, Apple Leisure Group, after they fired their U.S. DevOps team to replace them with cheaper overseas hires). In fact, the statute of limitations was a couple of months from expiration. They clearly used this old charge as a pretext to target him.

This minor charge was used to hold him. A U.S. Probation Officer then lied under oath to keep him jailed (pre trial) for three years. She claimed he installed a "Linux OS called Spice" to access the "dark web" and hide his activity.

This was a technical lie. The software was just a standard SPICE graphics driver for his Ph.D. program. It was not an operating system and could not disable their monitoring.

He now faces retaliation from U.S. Probation in Michigan. They have used fraudulent warrants to jail him again. He is currently in a county jail with a severe head injury from his arrest and has been denied a lawyer, a violation of his constitutional rights.

This is a documented case of the government twisting technical facts to prosecute a member of your community. I am not asking for money. I am asking you to please help amplify his story. You understand the technical truth and why this fight is so important.

We have all the evidence documented, including the court transcripts and fraudulent warrants. You can see everything here: https://rockenhaus.com

Thank you for your time and for everything you do for privacy online.

Sincerely,

Adrienne Rockenhaus

This is their site right now:

Every claim there still needs verification, but these are the things they claim. Without seeing all the official documents, we're left having to trust or take their word. Also see Matt DeHart for similarities; to quote Wikipedia: "On January 22, 2010, DeHart claims to have received a 'pretty detailed tip' from an associate who claims they were asked about the server by the FBI related to the file from a few months previously. At this point, he shut down his server entirely and claims to have destroyed its hard drives."

This is what happened in Russia (Dmitry Bogatov); the US seems to be getting "russified" in its approach towards Tor. █