Diebold Voting Machine Whistle-Blower being prosecuted for "Stealing documents"]

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Diebold Voting Machine Whistle-Blower being prosecuted for
"Stealing documents"
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 09:54:17 +0800
From: Robert J. Berger <rberger () ibd com>
To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>, Dave Farber <dave () farber net>

[So tell me again why the whistle-blower is being proscecuted
and the Officers of Diebold are still free? - Rob]

Man Pleads Not Guilty in Voting Device Case

By Hemmy So LA Times Staff Writer February 22, 2006

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/socal/la-me-
diebold22feb22,0,33600.story?coll=la-news-politics-local

A word processor accused of stealing damaging documents about
electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold Election Systems
was arraigned Tuesday on three felony counts.

Stephen Heller was charged in Los Angeles Superior Court with
felony access to computer data, commercial burglary and
receiving stolen property. He pleaded not guilty.

"It's a devastating allegation for a whistle-blower," said Blair
Berk, Heller's attorney. "Certainly, someone who saw those
documents could have reasonably believed that thousands of
voters were going to be potentially disenfranchised in upcoming
elections."

The charges arise from Heller's alleged disclosure two years ago
of legal papers from the Los Angeles office of international law
firm Jones Day, which represented Diebold at the time. Heller
was under contract as a word processor at Jones Day.

The documents included legal memos from one Jones Day attorney
to another regarding allegations by activists that Diebold had
used uncertified voting systems in Alameda County elections
beginning in 2002.

In the memos, a Jones Day attorney opined that using uncertified
voting systems violated California election law and that if
Diebold had employed an uncertified system, Alameda County could
sue the company for breaching its $12.7-million contract.

The documents also revealed that Diebold's attorneys were
exploring whether the California secretary of state had the
authority to investigate the company for alleged election law
violations.

The Oakland Tribune published the legal memos on its website in
April 2004. By then, the issue of whether Diebold used
uncertified systems was already receiving widespread attention,
because many of its systems failed during the March 2004
primary. As a result, poll workers had to turn away some early
voters in San Diego County, and Alameda County voters had to use
paper ballots.

A subsequent report by the secretary of state's office found
that Diebold had marketed and sold its systems before gaining
federal qualification and had installed uncertified software on
election machines in 17 counties.

<snip>


Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district
attorney's office, refused to call Heller a "whistle-blower."

"We call him a defendant," she said. "He's accused of breaking
the law…. If we feel that the evidence shows beyond a reasonable
doubt in our minds that a crime has been committed, it's our job
as a criminal prosecutor to file a case."

Although state law protects whistle-blowers from retaliation by
their employers, they can still be criminally prosecuted, said
Tom Devine, legal director at the Washington, D.C.-based
Government Accountability Project.

"It's very rare that it's successful," he said. "It's a tactic
where the primary goal may be to scare other would-be
whistle-blowers rather than a realistic attempt to obtain a
conviction."

Heller's preliminary hearing date will be set at a trial
conference April 24.

If convicted on all three counts, he could face up to three
years and eight months in state prison, Gibbons said.


––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Robert J. Berger - Internet Bandwidth Development, LLC.
Voice: 408-882-4755 eFax: +1-408-490-2868
http://www.ibd.com




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