Julie Amero remains in legal limbo land

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

http://www.courant.com/hc-rgreen0708.artjul08,0,1673816.column

Let's End Teacher's Long Nightmare


Rick Green 
July 8, 2008

You would have thought when Superior Court Judge Hillary B. Strackbein
tossed out the trumped-up conviction of a substitute teacher last year that
the state of Connecticut would have decided to leave Julie Amero alone.

Wrong.

Unbelievably, more than 13 months after Strackbein set aside Amero's
conviction on charges that she allowed seventh-graders to view pornography
in her classroom, the state is apparently still planning to bring Amero back
to trial.

Which means that as long as Amero is on the trial list, she must live with
this hanging over her head.



Why? Perhaps overworked state prosecutors are too busy to file the paperwork
to abandon the case. It's more likely that this is all an elaborate
face-saving maneuver that must slowly unwind so that nobody will ever look
bad.

There is no indication that state investigators are taking another look at
the now discredited work done by the Norwich
<http://www.courant.com/topic/us/connecticut/new-london-county/norwich-PLGEO
100100206170000.topic>  Police Department, which concluded that Amero was
responsible for the storm of porn pop-up messages that took over her
classroom computer on Oct. 19, 2004.

The truth is that Amero, nearly a computer illiterate, was a victim of
malicious software that had taken over her PC, thanks to the school
district's failure to update its technology. A team of computer security
experts from around the country, drawn to the case by reports of Amero's
conviction, proved without a doubt that Amero was a victim of "spyware" and
the inability of anyone to take an objective look at the case.

Meanwhile 3½ years after her arrest and a year after her conviction was set
aside, Amero's life continues to be the hell that began with her highly
public arrest in November of 2004 on charges of risk of injury to a minor.
At the time of her arrest, she was pregnant. She lost the baby.

Over the last year, I'm told, Amero has been hospitalized for stress and has
lost at least one job because her employer didn't like her arrest record.
She is on medication. So she waits, declining to speak publicly, for the
state to do something.

I tried to find out what plans the state has for this poor woman, who was
charged, arrested and convicted on false information, shoddy police work and
an unwillingness by anyone — from Norwich school officials to state
prosecutors — to admit that they had made a mistake.

Michael Regan, state's attorney for the New
<http://www.courant.com/topic/us/connecticut/new-london-county/new-london-%2
8new-london-connecticut%29-PLGEO100100206140000.topic> London district,
reminded me that there is a backlog of serious criminal cases in
southeastern Connecticut. The Amero case "is not a high priority for us. We
have other cases down here that are much more important."

If so, I asked, why leave this woman hanging?

Regan referred me to Thomas Griffin, the prosecutor in Norwich who makes
these decisions.

Griffin did not return my calls and e-mail. On Monday, I explained to an
investigator from his office that I merely wanted to find out the status of
Amero's case and what the state planned to do — more than a year after
Strackbein threw out the conviction. There are no plans to change Amero's
status, he told me.

I went to the top prosecutor in the state, Chief State's Attorney Kevin
Kane.

"I know that the new trial was granted," said Kane, who was patient, but had
few answers to my many questions.

"It's a pending case," Kane said. "We can't and shouldn't be commenting on
it."

In June of 2007, Strackbein threw out the initial conviction and ordered a
new trial. Now, even after a year in which Amero's lawyers and supporters
have said little in hopes that the state would quietly back off, Amero still
faces the same humiliating charges.

State prosecutors, faced with a case ruined by what Strackbein called
"erroneous" testimony and "false information," should walk away now and seek
dismissal of all charges against Amero.

Kane, Regan and Griffin don't want to talk about their plans, other than to
confirm that Amero is still on the active trial list. Her lawyer, Willie
Dow, and supporters across the country don't want to speak, either, fearing
this would antagonize prosecutors.

This is an embarrassing outrage. It's time to finally free Julie Amero.

Rick  <http://www.courant.com/topic/politics/rick-green-PEPLT002515.topic>
Green's column appears on Tuesdays and Fridays. He can be reached at
rgreen () courant com

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