Date: 23 Mar 93 14:55:45 EST From: David Lehrer <71756.2116@compuserve.com> 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.' ------------------------------