Criminal Justice
Lawyer Arranges Mayoral Visit with Jailed Engineer, Gets Computers Working
Posted Jul 23, 2008, 10:25 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The defense lawyer for the San Francisco computer engineer accused of shutting down the city’s computer system put together a secret meeting between her jailed client and Mayor Gavin Newsom.
At the meeting yesterday afternoon, jailed network administrator Terry Childs passed along the access codes to the computer network that he had previously refused to reveal, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Childs was jailed after being accused of forcing the shutdown of computers that handle 60 percent of the city's information, including law enforcement records.
The meeting was arranged by Childs’ lawyer, Erin Crane. She is likely to cite his cooperation in a motion to reduce his $5 million bail, the newspaper says.
Crane’s bail motion claims incompetent city officials were meddling with and jeopardizing the computer network that Childs had built. The motion says Childs had discovered the network was at risk of being infected with a computer virus introduced by a colleague.
"Mr. Childs had good reason to be protective of the password," the motion said. "His co-workers and supervisors had in the past maliciously damaged the system themselves, hindered his ability to maintain it ... and shown complete indifference to maintaining it themselves.”
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Posted by Name Withheld due to fear of reprisal at work. - 2 weeks, 2 days, 10 hours, 50 minutes ago
"accused of shutting down the city’s computer system”
No. The city’s computer system was not shut down and he has not been accused of doing so. He is accused of violating California Penal Code subsections 502(c)(5) because DTIS managers felt that by not disclosing information (the router passwords) he was creating a denial of service and that by having access to the network which it was his job to manage, he was somehow creating an ability for unauthorized access to the network.
Oddly, DTIS managers themselves are currently being investigated for willful official misconduct related to the city’s Sunshine Ordinance in that they are failing to disclose public information to the public… of course they aren’t sitting in jail awaiting the outcome as is Terry Childs.