Date: 24 Mar 93 01:16:36 EST
From: David Lehrer <
[email protected]>
Subject: Akron BBS Sting Update
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
Word Count: 1,538
TEXT:
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.'
CAPTION:
Photo
PHOTO: LEW STAMP
Beacon Journal - David Lehrer (left) and his son Mark
question why Munroe Falls police targeted Mark's computer
bulletin board, the Akron Anomaly.
DESCRIPTORS: DAVID LEHRER; MARK; MUNROE FALLS POLICE; SEARCH
WARRANT;
COMPUTER EQUIPMENT; COLLEGE STUDENT; OBSCENE;
JUVENILE;
BIOGRAPHY; INFORMATION
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