Amero trial transcript goes online

["'Richard M. Smith'" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

(The transcript can be found in links attached to the article at
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070225/NEWS01/70
2250334)

http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/445

Amero trial transcript goes online
Published: 2007-02-26

A local newspaper posted on Sunday the 346-page courtroom transcript of a
trial that found Connecticut substitute teacher Julie Amero guilty of
harming minors because her schoolroom PC was plagued by pornographic pop-up
ads.

The transcript, placed online by the Norwich Bulletin, brings more detail to
a case that has quickly become a controversial issue in the security
community. Prosecutors argued that forensics evidence proved that Amero had
herself caused the pop-up ads by going to pornographic Web sites, but
security experts have lambasted the assertions and have organized a massive
effort to analyze the disk image of Amero's classroom computer.

The transcripts show that the prosecution's main case against Amero was that
she did not do enough to prevent her pupils from seeing the images on the
screen, according to the Norwich Bulletin. However, the newspaper's
reporting of the case has been criticized by security experts and others.

The case has attracted an enormous amount of interest, because the details
of the trial appear to indicate that the jury convicted the teacher based on
a significant lack of understanding of the technology involved and a flawed
analysis of the digital evidence. For example, a police detective testified
that Amero would have had to click on pornographic Web sites to cause the
pop-up advertisements--testimony that security experts have roundly refuted.

Moreover, Amero did not do nothing. Evidence appears to indicate that the
monitor of the classroom computer had been turned to face away from the
students and that the children had to actually walk to the front of the
classroom to see the images.

Amero is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday in Norwich Superior Court. The
four felony counts could, conceivably, result in up to 40 years of jail time
for the former schoolteacher.
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