Somebody needs a Pop Up Blocker
It was a remarkable occurrence in New London Superior Court Wednesday when a judge threw out the conviction of a 40-year-old Norwich woman who had allegedly exposed seventh-graders to pornography on a classroom computer.
This was a national news story, attracting attention from coast to coast, both when she was convicted, and again, when her case was overturned.
Substitute teacher Julie Amero had always professed her innocence, explaining that while students were working at the computer at the Kelly Middle School in Norwich in October 2004, pornographic images began to pop up and she was unable to prevent them.
...She was convicted as a felon, and was facing up to 40 years in prison Wednesday; one for each of the four counts of risk of injury to a minor of which she was convicted.
Then Wednesday Judge Hillary B. Strack-bein delivered a major surprise. She overturned the jury's conviction, citing new evidence presented belatedly by the state that suggested jurors received erroneous information. It was computer geeks who helped Ms. Amero.
...a forensic examination of the classroom computer conducted by the state after Ms. Amero's conviction revealed that the pornographic images observed in the classroom that day were indeed from pop-ups.
This from TheDay.com (Connecticut).
2 comments:
The narrow escape for this teacher highlights some of the problems with using the Internet in class -- lack of teacher control over what might show up on those computers. This doesn't say much for the legal system, either. This woman was convicted by that system and only escaped an undeserved prison term due to after-the-fact submission of evidence. It is a bit like an accused rapist being pardoned after DNA matching shows that supposed felon could not have been at fault. I cannot imagine how this innocent teacher must have felt during the past three years of trial and false conviction.
This was yet another evidentiary misstep leading the public to believe that when a teacher is accused, it is, "guilty as charged," then we'll look at the facts."
Thank God for the GEEKS!
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