QUINCY, Mass. (AP) – The son of former Boston Red Sox star Jimmy Piersall should have been found guilty of only one count of hacking into his estranged wife’s e-mail during a custody battle, not 15 counts, an appeals court has ruled.

Christopher Piersall, 45, of Hanover, was charged in 2004 after getting his wife’s computer password from the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, then downloading 18 of her e-mails. He then sent those e-mails, which a prosecutor described as “love notes” between Piersall’s wife and her new boyfriend, to the boyfriend’s ex-wife.

A 1994 state law prohibits anyone from knowingly gaining unauthorized access to a computer. The maximum penalty is 30 days in prison and a $1,000 fine.

On Wednesday, the Appeals Court ruled that Piersall should have been convicted of just one count because each time a person logs into a computer without authorization is one violation, no matter how many documents are downloaded, The Patriot Ledger of Quincy reported. Until Wednesday’s decision, courts had not ruled on what constitutes a separate offense.

The court sent the case back to Quincy District Court for reconsideration of Piersall’s sentence of three years of unsupervised probation.

“Obviously, this was the decision we hoped for,” said Piersall’s lawyer, William Korman.

In a separate case, Piersall is awaiting trial on drug charges after being arrested in November for allegedly dealing marijuana.

Piersall’s father played for the Red Sox from 1950 to 1958. Jimmy Piersall’s experience with mental illness was portrayed in a 1957 movie, “Fear Strikes Out.”