Julie Amero is free at last.
If this were the 1970s, Bob Dylan might have written a song about her. Today it's geeks who came to her rescue.
Amero's "crime": In October 2004, the substitute teacher from Connecticut, was surfing the Net on a computer inside a middle school classroom when porn ads began popping up all over the screen. She didn't turn the computer off, because school officials expressly told her not to. Someone reported the incident, and Amero was charged with four counts of endangering minors. In January 2007, a jury convicted Amero of surfing XXX sites in the classroom.
Amero was looking at 40 years in the slammer when geeks around the country -- most notably Sunbelt Software CEO Alex Eckelberry -- read of her verdict and immediately recognized the telltale signs of a spyware infection. They went to work on Amero's behalf, urging the judge for a retrial (which was granted in June 2007). According to Hartford Courant blogger Rick Green:
The state never conducted a forensic examination of the hard drive and instead relied on the expertise of a Norwich detective, with limited computer experience. Experts working for Amero ridiculed the state's evidence, saying it was a classic case of spyware seizing control of the computer. Other experts also said that Amero's response -- she failed to turn off the computer -- was not unusual in cases like this.... Among other things, the security experts found that the Norwich school system had failed to properly update software that would have blocked the pornography in the first place.
Amero isn't totally exonerated. She agreed to plead guilty to "disorderly conduct" (a misdemeanor), pay US$100, and have her teaching credentials revoked. The state still refuses to acknowledge it was mistaken. Lord only knows if the school ever cleaned up its computers.
Somebody needs to revoke the credentials of Norwich school administrators and prosecutors -- or at least make them stay after school and learn something about the machines they put inside their classrooms.