Norwich Bulletin – www.norwichbulletin.com – Norwich, Conn. — This story is unbelievable and has gotten zero national media attention. This should give substitute teachers pause for thought.
In response to your editorial “Reason needed in teacher porn case sentencing,” I can only say I am shocked and dismayed at what is such a clear miscarriage of justice.
There is no question in my mind, and those of many other experts in the computing community, Julie Amero is innocent of the charges, and should not be imprisoned for one day, much less 40 years.
When I first read of the case, my reaction was how illogical it all sounded: A middle-aged, substitute female teacher accessing porn on a classroom computer, in front of her students on one particular day? It made no sense.
Then I read on to find out the forensic examination of the computer clearly showed this machine was an old, poorly maintained system, riddled with spyware, without adequate protections in place, and it all became clear. Amero is the victim, not the perpetrator.
Piecing together the evidence, we can get an idea as of what happened that day…(read article0
related link:
original report
The heartless State Attorney asked the question as to why she didn’t pull the plug on the computer during a porn storm. I would have testified that most people unfamiliar with computers would worry that this action would damage the machine or they would assume that the problem would continue when the machine was turned back on and they’d get in trouble later.
40 years! You really have to wonder what this imbecile is thinking.
Our justice system is in such terrible shape it’s scary. Any one of us can get thrown into the oubliette on purely unlucky circumstances, and with the current “guilty until proven innocent” climate of late you have almost zero chance of getting clear. We have almost 6 million people in prison (and don’t seem to be too picky about who we put there).
Oh wow, this is one of the most stupid things I have ever heard. How long do you think she will get? Any? 40?
It’s nuts. Just mistyping google.com could land you into a heap of trouble. The google.com with one o and two g’s looks different today, but I’m sure they’re still up to no good.
They oughta drag Bill Gates ass in to court as an expert witness.
What the hell is wrong with your country? Is that how a state official buys influence–sending teachers down for being computer illiterate?
christ, who defends these people? Lionel Hutz?
I’d like to say she must have had a dumb defense attorney. And the judge must have been dumb, also.
Let’s hope she can get this reversed on appeal…
my guess is that the prosecutor is stupid (maybe he actually believes she had to click those porn links) and overzealous (“won’t someone PLEASE think of the children!?!?”). My guess is that the prosecutor denigrated the defense expert as being a liar for hire. that’s typical.
hopefully, Conn. does not have those get-tough-on-crime mandatory minimum sentences that will have a middle-aged teacher locked up for a decade or so.
Is Nifong their prosecutor too. Over zelous prosecutors are dangerous people.
There’s your answer. What should be the next target for the War on Terror? Norwich, Connecticut. Oops, wrong thread. If it is not fiction, it is stranger than fiction.
There is a species of box turtle in Madagascar that is illegal to import without the proper paperwork. A friend of mine who deals in exotic pets bought two of these turtles, and it seems made some errors on the paperwork and was arrested by park rangers.
Park rangers are federal employees and the so-called crime he committed carried a mandatory minimum sentence of one year. Because the federal prosecutor, it seems, needed more checks in the win column, they chose to push for a conviction rather than clear up the mistake.
My friend spent his year in a federal prison, and can no longer vote, and now has to say yes to the “are you a felon” question on job apps…
…but that’s okay… Because at least now there will be no dangerous box turtle owners working menial jobs. We can all sleep safer at night.
Reason #6357 on the “Why I Am A Liberal” list.
It always amazes me how many people believe the average prosecutor is interested in justice. Most of them just want convictions so they can run for congress.
A dedication to justice has no upside for prosecutors. It’s worse if they’re federal prosecutors – get too interested in justice and Bush will fire them. (See the NY Times Krugman piece reprinted by TruthOut at http://tinyurl.com/2c3gpm for specifics.)
Absolutely Unacceptable.
How the @#$% does this happen?
It should be a CRIME for prosecutors to destroy peoples lives in such an OBVIOUS misunderstanding.
This is so laughable, its redicoulous..
I dont care what protection you have…SOMETHING will get on the computer you DONT want.
Is this teacher a MS certified tech??
Is this teacher an computer user BEYOND just teaching??
Can the school system afford someone that has the knowledge of a FULL ‘IT’ and service tech?? If not, they have NO reason to consider the teacher, as a TECH.
#13 –
“It always amazes me how many people believe the average prosecutor is interested in justice. Most of them just want convictions so they can run for congress.”
Not exactly, but close, TJG.
Around these parts (Houston), the DA’s Office is has traditionally been a stepping stone to ludrative private criminal practice. And the better positions go to the amoral, unethical filth who win the most convictions.
NOT the most convictions of guilty defendants – they simply prosecute EVERYONE who comes before them, guilty or not – so they can make more money. True scum-sucking sacks of shit in the mold of Nifong.
And don’t get me started on our DA, Chuck Rosenthal, a mouth-breathing asshat who makes Dubya look like Richard Dawkins!
BTW, Harris County, Texas, the 4th largest metorpolitan area in America, has not one single Democratic state judge. Not one. Owned and operated by the Republican Party of Texas.
Oughta tell ya something.
WOOT!! Guilty as Charged!! That’ll teach people to try and teach kids when they dont have a degree. ROFL!!
SNAP!!!
No surprises here..
The world has had front row seats to watch your democracy crumble since the advent of the internet..
Time for “We the People” to take back control sooner than later I hope
When I was in high school, one of the teachers used to show movies as a fund raiser during lunch. This was before video and it was a fun novelty.
Wouldn’t you know it!
While we were watching a lousy B-movie sci-fi, the teacher went out for a smoke the movie turned porno! Not hardcore but there were boobs, butts and an orgy.
I’m not sure anyone went and told the teacher — even we in the Teens for Christ club! I don’t think we were damaged, nor was the teacher punished for an honest mistake.
Put the DA in prison.
This so-called crime, and it’s punishment, is absurd regardless of who “did it”.
If some teacher clicked a porn site on purpose, what would be a reasonable penalty?
A warning, to start, you might think.
Such extreme punishment as described here falls well in the bounds
of “cruel and unusual”, not to mention just damn stupid.
The point is, the reality of this country has become nearly the antithesis of the myths we are fed.
This kind of sadistic prosecutorial behavior has become the norm.
We don’t hear about most of them, but the Duke lacrosse players
travesty is a well known – and well documented – example.
And don’t forget, even if she “gets off”, it’ll cost her a fortune and she’ll be smeared for life .
That’s her best outcome!
Life, 40 years, classroom, pig farm, it’s the same, but somehow different.
…and the DA is still alive?
Yes, I’m being serious.
Hey, Greg Allen #19, I bet the movie you were watching was Logan’s Run. I was recently caught off guard by the inexplicable porn scene in the middle of the movie.
And of course this poor woman will be added to the sex offenders list for the rest of her life. She may even finagle her way out of the 40 year sentence but still wind up on the offenders list. Ridiculous.
Where the hell is the school district in all this? Why isn’t the district’s IT department in the fire? They are negligent in putting an unprotected system in a classroom. The teacher can’t be held responsible for this. Her duty is to teach the kids, not maintain the computer.
The legal system and the school system are both FUBAR!
#26
Yes… It’s the ITs responsibility… But this is way beyond that issue…
Some kids saw some tits and we gotta lock up some poor substitute teacher for 40 years?
Jesus H Freaking Christ on a pogo stick… If I hold up a liquer store AND kill the clerk, I’m only going down for 8 or 10 years…
This is a tragic miscarriage of justice and an example of real corruption.
Also, just because is irrates the right wingers who lurk and troll around here, and not because it is true, I’d like to point out the real responsibility for this belongs to George Bush. If he were not in office, this never would have happened.
Stop complaining and help.
I’m blogging at http://region19.blogspot.com
The circumstances of this case make it a mistrial. How do we make that happen? The judge seems duplicitous so that’s not an option.
Ideas or pro bono law experts invited to respond.
Call in the feds! Racketeering? If the DA simply wanted convictions, he could
have taken down various school and school board officials rather than a bystander. There’s an unusual fish under the wrapper.
You’d see justice done if all school teachers in the country refused to allow a computer to be turned on (all power cords locked in a vault) until the miscarriage is corrected. If the decision stands, then
any teacher has unacceptable exposure to personal damage simply by allowing a computer to be turned on. This is
nothing more than enlightened self-interest on the part of the teachers. I’m not suggesting long investigations, but next morning, January 24th 2007, at 8:30 am.
Don’t develop tunnel vision focusing on this single incident. The issue, which apparently will have to reach pandemic levels before the gen pop notices, is out of control prosecutors with virtually zero accountability blatantly violating their oaths of office and the Constitution.
Gerald Amitault and his family, the Duke lacrosse teams and now this – these aren’t isolated incidents, this wholesale abridgement of the Constitution is happening everywhere in America, every single day.
And I’m here to tell ya, I have learned this firsthand, at incalculable personal expense and pain, the aftereffects of which will continue to the day I’m put in the ground.
Every time I see some do-gooder limousine liberal bring up the flaws of the criminal justice industry, it’s invariably to demand “justice” for some totally reprehensible, murderous resignee from the human race. When’s the last time you heard the Barbra Streisands, the Ed Asners, the Mike Farells, the Susan Sarandons use their public pulpits to raise awareness of the tens or hundreds of thousands of innocent Americans who get this sort of treatment?
Answer: never. They’re too fucking busy busting their gullible asses to help some foul destroyer of life avoid their just deserts, like “Tookie” or “Mumia.”
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that…”