Date: 23 Mar 93 14:55:45 EST
From: David Lehrer <
[email protected]>
Subject: Beacon article-fu: The Lehrer Case (RISKS-14.14 follow-up)
Akron Anomaly BBS trial issue:
Distributed with permission of The Akron Beacon Journal, David Lehrer
Police Say They Were Taking a Byte out of Crime. Munroe Falls Man Was
Arrested for Having X-Rated Pictures on His Computer Bulletin Board; His
Parents Believe the Sting Operation Was Politically Motivated.
Akron Beacon Journal (AK) - MONDAY March 22, 1993
By: CHARLENE NEVADA, Beacon Journal staff writer
Edition: 1 STAR Section: METRO Page: A1
When the police cars pulled up to David Lehrer's quiet Munroe Falls street
last June, it was a little like they were swooping down on a major criminal.
Police Chief Steve Stahl went to the door and told Lehrer that he had a search
warrant to seize computer equipment belonging to Lehrer's son, Mark. The
chief told the elder Lehrer that there was reason to believe Mark Lehrer, then
22, was using the computer and a modem to disseminate matter harmful to
juveniles. Essentially, the chief said, it appeared that there were dirty
pictures on a popular computer bulletin board operated by the younger Lehrer
and that teen-agers could use their own computers to view the dirty pictures.
The police went through the Lehrers' home -- seizing, labeling and
photographing anything and everything that fit on the computer. It was just
like on a police television show, only it was happening in Munroe Falls and
the accused was a college student computer whiz.
Greg Lehrer, Mark's younger brother, remembers asking one of the officers:
'Why don't you go out and find some real criminals?' That was nine months
ago. Some might still ask that question.
The case of the State of Ohio vs. Mark Lehrer was closed last week when Lehrer
stood before a judge in Summit County and pleaded guilty to one rather strange
misdemeanor: attempted possession of a criminal tool. Lehrer and his family
said the plea bargain was a way to put the matter behind them without risking
a jury trial and more legal expenses. They consider the whole episode a witch
hunt by Munroe Falls police. David Lehrer has said from the beginning that
Munroe Falls police only wanted to appropriate his son's high-power computer
-- which they labeled a criminal tool -- for their own use.
Within the computing community, the case caused so much outrage that some
lawyers and accountants set up a defense fund to help Lehrer. More than $1,500
came from all over the country.
Munroe Falls Police Chief Steve Stahl is about as unhappy over the resolution
as the Lehrers. Stahl wanted a felony conviction. The chief denied being on a
witch hunt for criminals in a relatively crime-free suburban community.
Lehrer's attorney, Don Varian, said the prosecutor offered to plea bargain
because prosecutors would have had problems going to trial: 'They would have
lost and they knew it,' he said.
On this much everyone agrees: Between last June and last week, the case took
lots of strange turns.
THE AKRON ANOMALY
It started one day last spring when Munroe Falls police got a tip from a Kent
State University student who said he was concerned that obscene material was
available to juveniles through a computer bulletin board known as the Akron
Anomaly. The Akron Anomaly was the baby of Mark Lehrer, a University of Akron
student. Lehrer has been into computers since he was in grade school and his
dad brought the first one home. Among people who love computers, bulletin
boards are a way to share ideas and programs. Bulletin board users are a
little like yesterday's ham radio operators.
The operator of a computer bulletin board is usually someone who has lots of
games, pictures and programs to share. Others can sign onto their own
computers -- and with the aid of a modem and telephone line -- tap into the
bulletin board and copy the files.
As computers go, Lehrer had a V-8 engine, a 486 IBM clone with 500 megabytes
of memory. (The whole Bible could be stored in 1 1/2 of those megabytes.)
Lehrer works at a computer store in Stark County. He was allowed to buy
accessories and upgrades at discount. His system -- not including discs -- was
valued at about $3,000.
The bulletin board was so successful that early last year a local computer
group called it one of the best around. Those who wanted to use the bulletin
board more than 45 minutes a day were asked to pay $15 a year, which Lehrer
applied to his phone bill.
X-RATED MATERIAL
The board had an adult section with X-rated pictures and movies. Those who
wanted access to the adult section had to send Lehrer a copy of a driver's
license and get a special clearance. Computer users don't just take things
from a bulletin board. They contribute, too. Programs and pictures sent to
the Anomaly were received in sort of an 'in' basket. Lehrer then sorted them
and filed them by category.
The X-rated stuff -- which Lehrer said was less than 2 percent of the
available files -- was put into the restricted-entry adult category.
According to Stahl, some of the X-rated files wound up in the clean section.
One in particular troubled Stahl. It was labeled '69,' a slang term for oral
sex, and had three X's behind it. To Stahl, that meant dirty. And since it
wasn't in a restricted-access section, anyone could see it.
But since Munroe Falls didn't actually have any outraged parents complaining,
the police set up a sting operation. Working on the advice of prosecutors
from the Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Court, police found a 15-year-old volunteer
and had him apply for membership under a fake name. They sat him down at a
computer and had him press the button to access one of the X-rated files. Then
he left because his parents didn't want him viewing the material. Lehrer was
charged with disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and possession of
criminal tools -- his computer.
At a preliminary hearing last June, Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Judge James
Bierce warned that more evidence would be needed to convict Lehrer.
Nonetheless, the matter was bound over to the grand jury. And that's where it
died. Just why isn't clear. Grand jury proceedings are secret. Stahl said the
grand jury didn't actually get to see the pictures.
Varian has his own theory. The police didn't have an independent witnesses
saying they or their children were offended, Varian said. All they had was the
15-year-old kid who was set up. That meant the jury would have had to look at
the issue of entrapment. Jurors might not have liked that.
NEW CHARGES
But the matter didn't end with the grand jury no-billing the issue of
disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. New charges surfaced. When
authorities seized Lehrer's computer, they also took those shopping bags full
of floppy discs. And apparently among them were some sex pictures in which the
subjects could have been under 18. So Lehrer was indicted for pandering
obscenity involving minors.
It didn't matter that the pictures came from a disc and weren't on line or
available through the bulletin board. The new charges made David Lehrer,
Mark's father, suspect even more that there was a hidden agenda.
POLITICS AT WORK?
Lehrer chairs the city's charter review commission. Last May, the commission
voted not to make the police chief's job classified, which would have afforded
Stahl a great measure of job protection. Plus, after the bust, Susan Lehrer
-- Mark's mother -- visited the chief. She took notes. She said Stahl talked
about how her son's computer could be used in police work. Stahl denied his
actions were politically motivated. He also denied wanting to get the
computer, which is now in the hands of state law enforcement officials.
The chief said he decided it would be wrong to ignore the case just because
Mark Lehrer's father held a public position. Stahl denied digging through the
floppies to find more to charge Lehrer with. The Bureau of Criminal
Investigation did that, he said.
COMPUTER GONE FOR GOOD
Mark Lehrer acknowledged having some adult files in the unrestricted area.
With 10,000 files to deal with, he said, it was a clerical error. Summit
County Prosecutor Lynn Slaby said that it would have been tough to convict
Lehrer on the kiddie porn charges because proving the ages of the people in
the pictures would have been tough. Varian said the women looked in the range
of 16 to 20.
To salvage the case, prosecutors offered the plea bargain. Lehrer said he
agreed to it because expert witnesses -- people to testify the people in the
picture weren't under 18 -- would have cost $6,000. Most importantly, he
said: 'I didn't want to go to trial for child pornography. Juries sometimes
convict people unfairly.'
He got no jail time, no probation and a small fine. But he had to give up his
computer.
'We did not endorse the plea agreement,' Stahl said. He said he still believes
that Lehrer is guilty of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles.
The chief said he isn't on an obscenity crusade. 'We're not Ravenna,' he
said, referring to that city's anti-porn-crusading mayor, Donald Kainrad.
To Lehrer -- who sees an empty room instead of a sophisticated computer --
it's been a nightmare and the end of a great hobby. 'Being hit with child
pornography charges' was far from just, he says. 'It's scary what people --
police and prosecutors -- can do to a citizen.'
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