We've been covering the unfair conviction of substitute teacher Julie Amero, who faces imprisonment for the crime of being present in a classroom equipped with an adware-infected computer. Here's an interesting development in the ongoing story:
PC World's Steve Bass made a bit of a miscalculation and outed the partial identity of Fred F., a juror in the Amero trial. The email interview in which the juror's screenname was released was initiated by Fred F,. who failed to follow Lincoln's famous rule, "It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool; Rather than open it and remove all doubt."
I'll let Fred F.'s own words and lack of punctuation speak the volumes that I dare not say.
"she was pronounced guilty because she made no effort to hide or stop the porno, not just because she loaded the porno onto the machine. Going to the history pages it was obvious that the paged were clicked on they were not the result of pop-ups."
That statement is in direct conflict with the testimony on record. Amero did everything short of turning off the computer, which she was instructed by a superior not to do. The children from her class testified — right in front of this juror — that she did make every effort to hide what was being displayed. He also seems to have picked up the same in-depth knowledge of Internet Explorer possessed by the Norwich police computer expert, which could be defined as; little to none.
Fred's obviously not the sharpest tool in the shed but, can you blame him? After all, he's a product of the same Connecticut school system that's teaching kids it's OK to send an innocent woman to jail in order to cover your own incompetence.
As Steve Bass says: "What I've learned from the Amero case is that if you're a teacher, always carry around a large, black trash bag, just in case you need to quickly cover a monitor. Who knows, it may keep you out of jail."
Previously on Boing Boing:
• Take Action: Julie Amero Porn Case
• Teacher faces 40 years for porn in classroom, blames adware
• Teacher faces jail time over "accidental porn" in classroom
(Thanks, Jennifer!)
Reader comment:
Zan says:
The Norwich Bulletin is reporting that sentencing has been postponed in the Julie Amero case until March 29th. Which means that there is still plenty of time to get your emails and letters in.
