NEW YORK (AP) — Evidence in a rare Internet impersonation case showed that a highly educated defendant broke the law by trying to “damage the careers and livelihoods” of scholars caught up in an academic debate about the Dead Sea Scrolls, a New York appeals court ruled in a mixed decision made public Wednesday.

The Appellate Division’s First Department threw out a single identity theft charge against Raphael Golb, but preserved convictions on several other charges accusing him of using phony emails to harass his victims with claims a prominent researcher had copied work from his father.