New trial granted for former Norwich teacher in porn case

[<rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/state/hc-06144028.apds.m0782.bc-c
t--teacjun06,0,5283066.story?coll=hc-headlines-local-wire 

New trial granted for former Norwich teacher in porn case
Associated Press
June 6, 2007

NEW LONDON, Conn. -- A judge granted a new trial Wednesday and dismissed the
conviction of a former Norwich substitute teacher accused of allowing
students to view pornography on a classroom computer.

Julie Amero, 40, of Windham, who maintained that the pornographic images
popped up on a school computer by themselves, faced up to 40 years in prison
after a jury convicted her in January of four counts of risk of injury to a
minor.

Amero, who has no criminal record, has found herself at the center of
national debate over computer security since the incident in a seventh-grade
classroom almost three years ago.

Her supporters - including a cadre of computer experts - say unseen spyware
and adware programs probably infected the old computer, and that it lacked
firewall protections to block the inappropriate pop-up ads and images.

Prosecutors argued at her trial that Amero visited the sites, then failed to
shield children from seeing the images.

After the trial, however, prosecutors sent the hard drive to the Connecticut
State Police forensics laboratory, where an analysis found evidence that
contradicted testimony from the state's expert witness.

"The lesson from this is: All of us are subject to the whims of these
computers, these great machines that all of a sudden can create a criminal
case against someone like Julie, who didn't understand what was going on,"
her attorney, William F. Dow, said after Wednesday's hearing.

Technology specialists hired by the defense team examined the computer twice
before Amero's trial, but were not allowed to testify about some of the
information they believed could have exonerated her. They raised enough
questions, however, to prompt prosecutors to seek their own analysis.

Dow and prosecutor David Smith did not say Wednesday whether adware, spyware
or other unwanted programs were discovered on the computer after Amero was
convicted.

Dow said the review looked at the computer's history, items on the hard
drive before and after the classroom incident, and other specifics.

"Certainly findings found by the state lab may contradict evidence presented
by the state's witness," Superior Court Judge Hillary B. Strackbein said
Wednesday. "The jury may have relied, at least in part, on that faulty
information."

...

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