Accused Hannah Montana Pirates Get Off

Charges dropped Friday

A Barrington couple must have had a great legal team.

Gerardo Arellano and his wife, Maribel Fernandez, were arrested last month, accused of illegally videotaping the new Hannah Montana movie to create pirated copies, but the charges were inexplicably dropped Friday.

Consider the evidence: the couplehad a video camera with them when they were arrested and in their home authorities found DVD duplicating equipment at 44,000 copies of pirated movies. The home computer had a link to a Web site which sells pirated movies.

The Motion Picture Association of America which estimated the value of the movies found in Arellano's home at $50,000, the Chicago Tribune reported last month.

A spokesman for the Cook County State's Attorney's office would not comment on why the charges were dropped.

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