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Preston Gralla's picture
Preston Gralla

Seeing Through Windows

Porn-surfing teacher: Spyware made me do it!

A Connecticut substitute teacher was just found guilty of surfing for pornographic sites in front of a class of seventh graders, and faces up to 40 years in prison. Her outrageous defense, that spyware took control of her PC and she had no control over it, didn't cut it with the jury. It's good to see the justice system getting technology right for once.

The teacher, 40-year-old Julie Amero, visited numerous pornographic sites, with her students watching along with her, reports the Norwich Bulletin.

Amero claimed that she had only visited a hair styling site, which planted spyware on the PC. She told the court that the pornographic images then appeared in an endless loop on her PC. "The pop-ups never went away," Amero testified. "They were continuous."

But it wasn't just pop-ups students saw. Web sites were visited, noted the prosecutor, and the teacher clicked on links to pornographic images.

Not only that, the prosecutor wanted to know, but if in fact spyware was on the PC, why didn't the teacher merely turn off the computer or pull the plug on it?

Amero had no answer.

Lawyers have come up with some novel defenses over the years, including the "Twinkie defense" in which a lawyer argued that defendant Dan White's eating of Twinkies and drinking Coca-Cola proved that he was depressed, and so not responsible for his actions in murdering San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978. The defense was partially successful; White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter rather than murder.

Luckily, it seems as if the spyware-made-me-do-it defense doesn't cut it in court. For once, justice prevails.

___________________
Update:

Thanks everyone for their comments here; you've brought many facts to light that I hadn't known about. To see my latest thinking on the matter, check out my latest blog post, Was porn-surfing teacher wrongly found guilty?.

What People Are Saying

WTF?!

Why could it not have been spyware?

I have worked with computers for many years and was always messing around with the computers at my school and there was this one site you could type in and you would never be able to close it...perhaps a student simply played a prank?

and 40 years?!

There all going to see it sooner or later either way..

This case is still travesty.

This case is still travesty. It is unconscionable that the Judge accept a plea bargain and even so that the prosecutor insist on some conviction to save face. The judge should have town the case out entirely. The prosecution and the school should pay damages to this teacher that suffered miscarriage and medical perils because of this.

To set thing straight, let the on line community tell the State of Connecticut that it is not OK to railroad a somebody innocent and that this case is not set right before the entire case is overturned including the trumped out plea-bargain charges. The judge does not accept emails but accept fax and mail at tis address:

Robert E. Young J.D. & G.A. 21 Courthouse
1 Courthouse Square
Norwich, CT 06360
Phone (860) 886-0144
Fax (860) 823-1019

Porno izle seyret porno izle

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Do you research anything before writing?

Are you also aware that the Twinkie-defense is a myth?

http://www.snopes.com/legal/twinkie.asp

You should be ashamed

You had very little knowledge of very public case in which you handed down an ignorant judgment. What made you immediately assume this person was guilty... the word "pornography"? You are no better than the gaggle of idiots that tried this case. I am shocked and depressed that there are people in this world that actually get their news, and their opinions, from you.

The fact that you recanted later is of no concern to me... the damage was already done. Besides... taking the time to Google the case would have demonstrated that perhaps your uninformed opinion should have been withheld.

my teacher abused me and i

my teacher abused me and i dont know what to do

40 years? Geez! What has

40 years? Geez! What has the justice system become? Michael Vick fights dogs and Michael Jackson rapes children, O.J. Simpson kills his wife and all are free. MONEY. This teacher watches porn with these kids. (she states it was spyware) and faces 40 yrs... sick

For those of you amazed by

For those of you amazed by the rampant stupidity. Consider this article:

http://blogs.pcworld.com/tipsandtweaks/archives/003741.html

which references one of the jurors (who imporperly discussed the case with press), connyankee1951

Here's a page with his picture:

http://www.obesityhelp.com/member/connyankee1951/

take a look at him, read the pcworld article, and tell me you are still still surprised at the verdict, the stupidity, etc.

These are the kinds of people who hold your fate in their hands. Run scared!

Guilty of what? The fact

Guilty of what? The fact that the school system has computers in the room and untrained teachers to handle them is he crime let alone the lack of defense and antimalware software. The teacher did not even know how to turn the darn thing off let alone had been told not to touch "anything." Why is the school system not being brought to trial for such lack of foresight? And what about the school's IT department, just what were they doing when the spyware took over?

Hinicesitemdu hoho

Hinicesitemdu hoho