Hacker 2/HACKER2.mdf/cud/cud523b.txt

Text File | 1995-01-03 | 11KB | 332 lines

Date: 24 Mar 93 01:16:36 EST
From: David Lehrer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Akron BBS Sting Update

Akron Anomaly BBS trial issue:

Distributed with permission of The Akron Beacon Journal
David Lehrer

********************

POLICE  SAY  THEY  WERE  TAKING  A  BYTE  OUT OF CRIME MUNROE FALLS
MAN WAS ARRESTED  FOR  HAVING  X-RATED PICTURES ON HIS COMPUTER
BULLETIN BOARD; HIS PARENTS BELIEVE THE STING OPERATION WAS
POLITICALLY MOTIVATED.

Akron Beacon Journal (AK) - MONDAY March 22, 1993
By: CHARLENE NEVADA, Beacon Journal staff writer
Edition: 1 STAR  Section: METRO  Page: A1
Word Count: 1,538

TEXT:
When  the police cars pulled up to David Lehrer's quiet Munroe
Falls
street last  June,  it  was  a  little  like  they  were  swooping
down on a major criminal.

   Police  Chief Steve Stahl went to the door and told Lehrer that
he
had a search warrant to seize computer equipment belonging to
Lehrer's
son, Mark.  The  chief  told  the  elder  Lehrer  that there was
reason to believe Mark Lehrer,  then  22, was using the computer
and a
modem to disseminate matter harmful to juveniles.

    Essentially, the chief said, it appeared that there were dirty
pictures on  a  popular  computer  bulletin board operated by the
younger Lehrer and that teen-agers could use their own computers to
view the dirty pictures.

    The  police  went  through  the  Lehrers' home -- seizing,
labeling and photographing anything and everything that fit on the
computer. It was just like on a police television show, only it was
happening in Munroe Falls and the accused was a college student
computer whiz.

    Greg  Lehrer,  Mark's  younger  brother,  remembers  asking
one
of the officers: 'Why don't you go out and find some real
criminals?'

   That was nine months ago.

   Some might still ask that question.

   The  case of the State of Ohio vs. Mark Lehrer was closed last
week
when Lehrer  stood  before  a  judge  in Summit County and pleaded
guilty to one rather strange misdemeanor: attempted possession of
a
criminal tool.

   Lehrer  and his family said the plea bargain was a way to put
the
matter behind  them  without  risking  a  jury trial and more legal
expenses. They consider the whole episode a witch hunt by Munroe
Falls
police.

   David  Lehrer  has said from the beginning that Munroe Falls
police
only wanted to appropriate his son's high-power computer -- which
they
labeled a criminal tool -- for their own use.

   Within  the  computing  community,  the case caused so much
outrage
that some  lawyers  and  accountants  set up a defense fund to help
Lehrer. More than $1,500 came from all over the country.

   Munroe  Falls  Police  Chief  Steve  Stahl  is about as unhappy
over the resolution as the Lehrers.

   Stahl wanted a felony conviction. The chief denied being on a
witch
hunt for criminals in a relatively crime-free suburban community.

    Lehrer's  attorney,  Don  Varian,  said  the prosecutor offered
to
plea bargain  because  prosecutors would have had problems going to
trial: 'They would have lost and they knew it,' he said.

   On  this much everyone agrees: Between last June and last week,
the
case took lots of strange turns.

   THE AKRON ANOMALY
   It started one day last spring when Munroe Falls police got a
tip
from a Kent  State  University  student  who  said  he  was
concerned
that obscene material was available to juveniles through a computer
bulletin board known as the Akron Anomaly.

   The  Akron  Anomaly  was  the baby of Mark Lehrer, a University
of
Akron student.  Lehrer  has  been into computers since he was in
grade
school and his  dad  brought  the  first  one  home.  Among people
who
love computers, bulletin boards are a way to share ideas and
programs.
Bulletin board users are a little like yesterday's ham radio
operators.

    The  operator  of  a computer bulletin board is usually someone
who has lots of games, pictures and programs to share.

    Others can sign onto their own computers -- and with the aid of
a
modem and telephone line -- tap into the bulletin board and copy
the
files.

    As  computers  go,  Lehrer  had  a V-8 engine, a 486 IBM clone
with 500 megabytes  of  memory.  (The  whole Bible could be stored
in
1 1/2 of those megabytes.)

    Lehrer works at a computer store in Stark County. He was
allowed
to buy accessories  and upgrades at discount. His system -- not
including discs --was valued at about $3,000.

   The  bulletin  board  was  so  successful  that  early last year
a
local computer group called it one of the best around.

    Those  who  wanted to use the bulletin board more than 45
minutes
a day were asked to pay $15 a year, which Lehrer applied to his
phone
bill.

   X-RATED MATERIAL

   The  board  had an adult section with X-rated pictures and
movies.
Those who  wanted  access  to  the  adult  section had to send
Lehrer
a copy of a driver's license and get a special clearance.

   Computer  users  don't  just  take  things  from  a bulletin
board.
They contribute, too.

   Programs  and  pictures  sent to the Anomaly were received in
sort
of an 'in' basket. Lehrer then sorted them and filed them by
category.

   The  X-rated  stuff  -- which Lehrer said was less than 2
percent
of the available  files  --  was  put  into  the  restricted-entry
adult category.  According  to  Stahl,  some  of  the  X-rated
files
wound up in the clean section.

    One in particular troubled Stahl. It was labeled '69,' a slang
term for oral sex, and had three X's behind it.

   To  Stahl,  that meant dirty. And since it wasn't in a
restricted-access section, anyone could see it.

   But  since  Munroe  Falls  didn't  actually  have  any  outraged
parents complaining, the police set up a sting operation.

    Working  on the advice of prosecutors from the Cuyahoga Falls
Municipal Court,  police  found  a  15-year-old  volunteer  and
had
him  apply  for membership  under  a fake name. They sat him down
at a
computer and had him press  the  button to access one of the
X-rated
files. Then he left because his parents didn't want him viewing the
material.

    Lehrer  was  charged with disseminating matter harmful to
juveniles and possession of criminal tools -- his computer.

    At  a  preliminary  hearing  last  June, Cuyahoga Falls
Municipal
Judge James  Bierce  warned that more evidence would be needed to
convict Lehrer.  Nonetheless, the matter was bound over to the
grand
jury.

    And  that's where it died. Just why isn't clear. Grand jury
proceedings are secret.

    Stahl said the grand jury didn't actually get to see the
pictures.

    Varian has his own theory.

    The  police  didn't  have an independent witnesses saying they
or
their children  were  offended, Varian said. All they had was the
15-year-old kid who  was set up. That meant the jury would have had
to
look at the issue of entrapment. Jurors might not have liked that.

   NEW CHARGES

   But  the  matter  didn't end with the grand jury no-billing the
issue of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles.

    New charges surfaced.
    When  authorities  seized  Lehrer's  computer,  they  also
took
those shopping bags full of floppy discs. And apparently among them
were some sex pictures in which the subjects could have been under
18.

    So Lehrer was indicted for pandering obscenity involving
minors.

    It didn't matter that the pictures came from a disc and weren't
on
line or available through the bulletin board.

    The  new  charges  made  David Lehrer, Mark's father, suspect
even
more that there was a hidden agenda.

   POLITICS AT WORK?

   Lehrer  chairs  the  city's  charter  review  commission.  Last
May, the commission voted not to make the police chief's job
classified, which would have afforded Stahl a great measure of job
protection.

   Plus,  after  the  bust,  Susan  Lehrer  -- Mark's mother --
visited the chief.  She  took notes. She said Stahl talked about
how
her son's computer could be used in police work.

    Stahl  denied  his  actions  were politically motivated. He
also
denied wanting  to  get  the  computer,  which  is  now  in the
hands
of state law enforcement officials.

    The  chief  said  he  decided it would be wrong to ignore the
case
just because Mark Lehrer's father held a public position.

    Stahl denied digging through the floppies to find more to
charge
Lehrer with. The Bureau of Criminal Investigation did that, he
said.

   COMPUTER GONE FOR GOOD

   Mark  Lehrer  acknowledged  having  some adult files in the
unrestricted area. With 10,000 files to deal with, he said, it was
a
clerical error.

    Summit  County Prosecutor Lynn Slaby said that it would have
been
tough to  convict  Lehrer  on the kiddie porn charges because
proving
the ages of the  people  in  the  pictures would have been tough.
Varian said the women looked in the range of 16 to 20.

    To salvage the case, prosecutors offered the plea bargain.
Lehrer
   said  he  agreed  to  it  because  expert witnesses -- people to
   testify  the  people  in  the  picture  weren't under 18 --
would
   have cost $6,000.

    Most  importantly,  he  said:  'I  didn't want to go to trial
for
child pornography. Juries sometimes convict people unfairly.'

    He  got no jail time, no probation and a small fine. But he had
to
give up his computer.

    'We  did  not endorse the plea agreement,' Stahl said. He said
he
still believes   that  Lehrer  is  guilty  of  disseminating
matter
harmful  to juveniles.

   The chief said he isn't on an obscenity crusade. 'We're not
Ravenna,' he said, referring to that city's anti-porn-crusading
mayor,
Donald Kainrad.

   To  Lehrer -- who sees an empty room instead of a sophisticated
computer -- it's been a nightmare and the end of a great hobby.

   'Being  hit  with child pornography charges' was far from just,
he
says.  'It's scary what people -- police and prosecutors -- can do
to
a citizen.'

CAPTION:
Photo

   PHOTO: LEW STAMP

   Beacon  Journal  -  David  Lehrer  (left)  and his son Mark
question why Munroe  Falls  police  targeted  Mark's  computer
bulletin board, the Akron Anomaly.

DESCRIPTORS:  DAVID LEHRER; MARK; MUNROE FALLS POLICE; SEARCH
WARRANT;
              COMPUTER EQUIPMENT; COLLEGE STUDENT; OBSCENE;
JUVENILE;
              BIOGRAPHY; INFORMATION


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