Former Philadelphia news anchor Larry Mendte pleaded guilty on Friday to illegally accessing the email of his former co-anchor, the troubled Alycia Lane. Mendte faces a possible 5 years in prison. The advisory federal sentencing guidelines call for a sentence in the range of 0 to 6 months. I would anticipate a sentence closer to the lower end of the range, and possibly no prison time, although I do not think that Mendte helped himself with his post-plea news conference yesterday, during which he accused Lane of starting the personal feud between the former co-anchors that culminated with Lane’s firing after an unseemly incident with New York police, and Mendte being charged with hacking Lane’s email, and allegations that Mendte had been the source for numerous unflattering gossip stories about Lane. According to Mendte, Lane began a campaign to undermine Mendte with station management after Mendte ended what he described as a “flirtatious” and “inappropriate” relationship with Lane. Lane denies the relationship existed, as well as Mendte’s broader allegations. Regardless of the truth of the matter – and it certainly lies in there somewhere and, in all likelihood, sits closer to Mendte’s version than Lane’s – Mendte would have been better off simply saying his mea culpa, and leaving his finger pointing explanation for another day, preferably after his sentencing in November.