Porn pop-ups may land teacher in prison for up to 40 years

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

A substitute teacher in Norwich, Conn., faces up to 40 years in prison because of pornographic images that popped up on her classroom computer in 2004. Several students at Kelly Middle School in Norwich saw the images appear.

The teacher, Julie Amero, was convicted by a jury earlier this month on four counts of risk of injury to a minor. She is slated to be sentenced on March 2 in Norwich Superior Court.

The prosecution insists that Amero actively visited the sexually explicit Web sites, Assistant State's Attorney David J. Smith told the Norwich Bulletin.

Others, however, argue that Amero's conviction and the penalty she faces are a travesty of justice. Her lawyer, and several computer security experts, say that Amero was the victim of spyware and Web sites that were programmed to display an incessant stream of pop-ups, including explicit ones.

"We analyzed the activity log and noted that there were spyware/adware programs installed on the hard drive," W. Herbert Horner, a computer consultant who testified for Amero, wrote on a blog published Monday.

Horner said he wasn't allowed to deliver full testimony during trial.

"If there is an appeal and the defense is allowed to show the entire results of the forensic examination in front of experienced computer people, including a computer literate judge and prosecutor, Julie Amero will walk out of the court room as a free person," he wrote.

Security experts who were not part of the trial have also come to Amero's defense. One of them is Alex Eckelberry, chief executive of antispyware company Sunbelt Software.

"It's clear that we have a miscarriage of justice here," he wrote on his company's blog. "The forensic evidence and expert testimony showed clearly that after a visit to Crayola.com, someone went to a site about hair styles which loaded a javascript that spawned pop-ups." Eckelberry also penned an editorial for the local paper in Norwich.

Amero's attorney is planning an appeal after sentencing, the newspaper reported.

http://news.com.com/2061-10789_3-6153487.html

[Jenn! 918]

Oh my goodness, this happened to me while I was teaching in Italy!!!!

So glad it didn't happen here!

[almaty 19]

whoa, that is terrible and yes, that sh!t pops-up at unexpectedly times

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I never look at web sites about hairstyles for this reason alone.

[Peikko 1,575]

Is it possible for school network engineers to do something about this kind of thing?

I thought it was possible to limit access on a network so it would seem sensible to have this in place on public networks like schools and libraries, but maybe the technology is still not good enough to stop this kind of thing from happening...

[ELW 5]

40 years for something that she had no control over?! Are we living in the dark ages?

[Robor007 0]

Wow, can you say overreaction?

[Dr. Obvious 49]

Oh I am sure those children were just scarred for life. They were middle school kids. They aren't innocent four year olds. What kind of jury was this? All from Focus on the Family?

[peejay 327]

What kind of jury was this? All from Focus on the Family?

Let's see...Connecticut...a solid "Blue" state in the heart of Yankee land.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

No category for "sheer judicial IDIOCY"?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Are we living in the dark ages?

Yes. We are. The media-induced public hysteria over children and pornography on the Internet is going to turn into a witchhunt.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

whoa, that is terrible and yes, that sh!t pops-up at unexpectedly times

I use Firefox and uncheck load images when at work. It has saved my life.

[SoL. 0]

I remember when I used to go to the Public Library and when opening the IE to do a search, WOA! All those nasty pop ups would start going crazy! It was soooo embarrasing, I would turn the computer off to stop them!