State V. Amero
A Miscarriage of Justice
380 Days Later - What has changed?
Dawn and I were married days after and recently celebrated our first anniversary.  America has selected Democratic and Republican nominees after what many feel has been the longest primary ever.  Floods across the MidWest and a record year for tornadoes have revealed tales of terror and highlighted acts of tremendous courage.  The widely discussed "Surge" in Iraq has come and now begins to ebb.

But for Julie Amero Volle and her husband, Wes, little has changed.  380 days after her conviction was overturned, the State of Connecticut has still failed to drop the erroneous charges against her.   Julie still lives under the cloud of looming prosecution, and continues to suffer health and employment problems due to the stress.

Marking the anniversary of the Superior Court Decision, Rick Green writes:
There is no indication that state investigators are taking another look at the now discredited work done by the Norwich Police Department, which concluded that Amero was responsible for the storm of porn pop-up messages that took over her classroom computer on Oct. 19, 2004.
And the state's attorney can't be bothered
Michael Regan, state's attorney for the New London district, reminded me that there is a backlog of serious criminal cases in southeastern Connecticut. The Amero case "is not a high priority for us. We have other cases down here that are much more important."
And while Connecticut continues to suffer worldwide ridicule for their performance in this case, Julie Amero still lives with this tremendous weigh upon her shoulders.

I'll let the editorial in today's Hartford Courant close this article

By burying her case in paperwork, delaying decisions and denying her justice, prosecutors are treating Ms. Amero almost as if she were a Guantanamo detainee. It's past time to end the agony.


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Posted by Mike Conwell at
7/10/2008 10:03 AM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Great, Great News!!!
Julie Amero has been granted a motion for a new trial!!

Julie Amero's attorney filed a motion for a new trial, yesterday, to be ruled on at her sentencing hearing this morning at 10am EST.  States Attorney, Dave Smith, did not contest the motion for the new trial.   It's my personal belief that there never will be a new trial, and we just need some kind of assurance from the State of Connecticut that charges will not be pursued.

This means that Julie's "Guilty Verdict" has been vacated.   When the world learned of her story, she had already been found guilty, and all that was left to do was sentencing.   Good or bad, the decision of a jury is very well protected in US Courts, and there was little to do in the way of offering new evidence to prove her innocence.   However, the Amero Defense Team was able to find enough faults in the conduct of the trial and testimony given, to prevent the sentencing from taking place.

Julie's story demonstrates the scariness of the internet.  The pop-up porn storm that began the story.   The fear and lack of knowledge that resulted in charges being filed.   And some very real complacency in our court system that resulted in her being found guilty in a sloppy, sloppy trial.

However, Julie's story also demonstrates the power of the internet.   When the story broke, folks all over the world were alarmed to hear of it and a support structure began to form.  Composed of data forensics experts, computer folks, teachers, professors, lawyers, journalists and local folks, hundreds of hours were donated to performing forensics works, dozens of press interviews and radio appearances were given, and money was raised to aid in Julie's defense.

I'm going to write more about this. (at blog.state-v-amero.com) Will have more links on the web, but here's three quick stories.  Check out www.TheDay.com for a great picture and the Courant for a link to video footage filmed outside the court house.

http://www.theday.com
http://www.courant.com  (has link to Fox 61 video as well)
http://www.norwichbulletin.com

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Posted by Mike Conwell at
6/6/2007 12:36 PM | View Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Sentencing Delayed, Part IV
Another delay occurred in the sentencing phase of the State v Julie Amero trial.  The latest less than 24 hours before the May 18th hearing.   I'm late in posting this notice (sorry), but the Groundhog Day aspect of this can lead to complacency.

Rick Green over at the Hartford Courant has lots to say about this:

"The state has not completed a full examination of all the issues which may affect its position at the sentence hearing."

Translation: We were wrong. We are trying to figure a CYA way out of this mess.

They still are. Amero's sentencing Thursday was delayed again until June 6 - the fourth postponement since March. She's still convicted of four counts of risk of injury to a minor, facing a potential 40 years in jail.


Stay Tuned....

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Posted by Mike Conwell at
5/24/2007 2:41 PM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Sentencing Delayed, Part III

Bob Johnston at e-computer-security  reports that upon calling the Norwich Supreme Court Clerk's office, he was notified that:

"The Julie Amero sentencing hearing has been rescheduled for May 18th in Norwich Superior Court."
Nuthin' yet from the media.  There may not have been an official announcement yet, but that's the word.

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Posted by Mike Conwell at
4/24/2007 3:02 PM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Amero Sentencing Delayed!! [Part 2]
Just in from Connecticut.  Sentencing for Julie Amero has once again been postponed.  Originally set for March 2nd, it was postponed until this Thursday, March 29th.   It's now been bumped to April 26th.

This is good news for just about everybody.   But Julie Amero is still living in suspense as to what her fate will be.  I just hope that she, being closer to the case than I, can see reasons for being more optimistic.

The publicity and work y'all are doing is really helping out.  According to Rick Green's story from the Hartford Courant, prosecutor David Smith menaced Julie saying "you are going to spend 18 years in jail".    With all of the pressure generated by you the readers and the press, his recent hints were still for jail time, but substantially less.   While in some ways, the internet was responsible for getting Julie Amero into this mess, it's definitely the Internet (read y'all) that is coming to her rescue by coordinating resources and stirring up outrage around the world.  

According to the Hartford Courant, a new State's Attorney is working on the case.  We don't know yet if the malicious prosecutor David Smith is still involved or not.  Whispers are that the State of Connecticut is trying to find the easiest way out of the jam they've gotten themselves into, without too many getting fired (and sued).  

Hartford Courant: Norwich Teacher’s Sentencing Delayed

Hey Folks, it's easy!  Drop the charges, pay a substantial, but not enormous penalty to Julie and her family and get back to prosecuting real criminals.   Any further delay just costs the State of Connecticut more money, and increases the ultimate penalty they will have to pay.

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Posted by Mike Conwell at
3/27/2007 3:23 PM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Hartford Courant Ad - An Open Letter to Kevin Kane
3/6/07 The following open letter to Connecticut's Chief State Attorney appears in today's Hartford Courant.

An excellent suggestion has been offered by Mark Rasch, former chief of the U.S.
Department of Justice's cyber crime unit:
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Posted by Mike Conwell at
3/6/2007 11:10 AM | View Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Tech.Blorge.com: Porn pop-ups could land grade school teacher behind bars
tech.Blorge.com
Tristoni McIntyre
March 2nd, 2007

In what can be associated with the string of “teacher abuses student” cases in the 90s, the new face of educational abuse has reared its ugly head in the classroom: pornographic pop-ups.


Read the Full Column Here

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Posted by Mike Conwell at
3/3/2007 2:58 PM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
UK The Times: Internet porn pop-ups cost this teacher her job and her freedom
Internet porn pop-ups cost this teacher her job and her freedom
The Times
In a case that has become a cause célãbre in the online world, where millions of rogue websites appear unsolicited on computer screens every day, Julie Amero is gathering a network of supporters who claim that she has been wrongly convicted over an incident she says has destroyed her life.


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Posted by Mike Conwell at
3/3/2007 4:49 AM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
WP: Buggy Justice in Connecticut
Washington Post - Technology
Rob Pegoraro
March 2, 2007


Ever gone to the wrong Web site by mistake, then thanked the deity of your choice that you were able to back out of there before any coworkers noticed? If you'd done that in a school in Norwich, Conn., you might be facing 40 years in jail.

No joke: Substitute elementary schoolteacher Julia Amero was convicted on Jan. 5 of four counts of "Risk of Injury to a Minor" for exposing a classroom of middle schoolers to pornographic images on her computer on Oct. 19, 2004. She faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in jail and was due to be sentenced today, but on Monday, Superior Court Judge Hillary Strackbein postponed her sentencing to March 29.


Read the Full Story Here

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Posted by Mike Conwell at
3/2/2007 4:44 PM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Hartford Courant: IT Pros Say It Ain't So

IT Pros Say It Ain't So

Hartford Courant
Rick Green
March 2, 2007

The angry geek gods of the computer world are besieging Norwich, shredding the credibility of a community on the verge of sending an apparently innocent woman to jail.

For this, every teacher in Connecticut should be thankful. Because if a Superior Court verdict in Norwich isn't tossed out and there's a computer with uncertain protection in your classroom, you'd better worry.



Read the Full Story Here:

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Posted by Mike Conwell at
3/2/2007 12:55 PM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)