Docket Number: CR-04-93292
Date: January 3rd thru 5th 2007
Location: Superior Court,
Judge: Hillary B. Strackbein.
Prosecution attorney: David Smith, Esquire.
Defense attorney: John F. Cocheo, Esquire.
Skip to trial transcript for Jan 3rd including testimony by Scott Fain, Matthew Napp, Jennybeth Whitaker, Robert Hartz, Michael Belair, Student 1 and trial transcript for Jan 4th including testimomy by Mark Lounsbury, Student 2, Student 3, Student 4, Student 5, Student 6, Student 7 and trial transcript for Jan 5th including testimony by Herbert Horner, Julie Amero, Merja Lehtinen, Scott Fain, Mark Lounsbury, and Adriene Amero-Marshall.
THE COURT: Any preliminary matters before we bring in the jury?
MR. COCHEO: For the record, I would like to have it be noted that I advised my client. She has decided that she wants us to go forward with the trial.
THE COURT: That is her right. Also, there is a motion here that is being withdrawn without prejudice, is that correct?
MR. COCHEO: Yes, Your Honor.
MR. SMITH: For the record, the state has filed a substitute information bringing the counts down from ten counts to four counts.
THE COURT: Right.
MR. SMITH: I believe she has been put to plea on the other ones. Just to be safe, I would ask that she be put to plea on the substitute information.
THE CLERK: Docket Number CR-04-93292, Julie Amero, this information charges you with Risk of Injury to a Child in violation of Connecticut General Statute 53-21(a)(l). How do you plead, guilty or not guilty?
MS. AMERO: Not guilty.
THE CLERK: There's also a Count Two, risk of injury to a child, in violation of Connecticut General Statute 53-21(a) (1). How do you plead, guilty or not guilty?
MS AMERO: Not guilty.
CLERK: Count three, in violation of Connecticut General Statute 53-21 (a) (1), how do you plead?
MS. AMERO: Not guilty.
THE CLERK: Count Four, in violation of Connecticut General Statute 53a-21 (a) (1), how do you plead?
MS. AMERO Not guilty.
MR. SMITH: At this time, the state would invoke the rule of sequestration. The state has spoken to defense counsel. The rule of sequestration is to have witnesses not speak about the case, however, the defense does have an expert witness. The state does not have an objection to the expert witness being present when the state presents evidence by its two witnesses, specifically concerning the computers, which would be Mr. Hartz and Detective Lounsbury.
THE COURT: Is that by agreement?
MR. COCHEO: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Other witnesses are currently sequestered.
MR. SMITH: My witnesses are. My understanding, I will go out there to make sure they don't speak. I believe the expert witness is here. There's no objection, except for the expert testimony. I told them who those two witnesses would be previously.
MR. COCHEO: As I understand it, at this point in time, he should remove himself from the courtroom until the experts are called.
MR. SMITH: Yes. I will take him out, point out my expert witnesses so he can follow them in, and I will make sure my witnesses don't speak about the case. May I have one minute?
THE COURT: Yes.
(Pause)
MR. SMITH: Thank you, Your Honor.
THE COURT: You may bring in the jury. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The clerk will administer an oath to you now.
(Jurors are sworn in)
THE COURT: All right, ladies and gentlemen. Before we start taking evidence in the case, I will make some introductory remarks. The purpose of these remarks at this point is to generally acquaint you with some of the legal principles which will control your deliberations in this matter. I don't intend these remarks to be a substitute for the detailed instructions of the law which I will give to you at the end of the trial, rather I hope you will find these remarks helpful as you sit and hear the evidence in the case. As you know, this is a criminal case which has been commenced by the State of
The defendant has been charged in what is now a substitute information which reads as follows:
Count One. Assistant State's Attorney David J. Smith accuses the defendant, Julie Amero, now or formerly of [redacted] of Windham, Connecticut, of the crime of Risk of Injury to a Minor, in violation of Connecticut General Statute Section 53-21(a) (1) and charges that on or about October 19th, 2004, in the City of Norwich, the defendant did willfully and unlawfully cause a child under the age of sixteen years to be placed in such a situation that the morals of said child were likely to be impaired.
Count Two. Assistant State's Attorney David J. Smith accuses the defendant, Julie Amero, now or formerly of [redacted] of Windham, Connecticut, of the crime of Risk of Injury to a Minor, in violation of Connecticut General Statute Section 53-21(a)(1) and charges that on or about October 19, 2004, in the City of Norwich, the defendant did willfully and unlawfully cause a child under the age of sixteen years to be placed in such a situation that the morals of said child were likely to be impaired.
Count Three. Assistant State's Attorney David J. Smith accuses the defendant, Julie Amero, now or formerly of [redacted] of Windham, Connecticut, of the crime of Risk of Injury to a Minor, in violation of Connecticut General Statute Section 53-21(a) (1) and charges that on or about October 19th, 2004, in the City of Norwich, the defendant did willfully and unlawfully cause a child under the age of sixteen years to be placed in such a situation that the morals of said child were likely to be impaired.
Count Four. Assistant State's Attorney David J. Smith accuses the defendant, Julie Amero, now or formerly of [redacted] of Windham, Connecticut, of the crime of Risk of Injury to a Minor, in violation of Connecticut General Statute Section 53-21 (a) (1) and charges that on or about October 19th, 2004, in the City of Norwich, the defendant did willfully and unlawfully cause a child under the age of sixteen years to be placed in such a situation that the morals of said child were likely to be impaired.
You should clearly understand that the information in the document I just read to you is not evidence in the case. As I mentioned before, it is merely the formal manner of accusing a person of a crime, of bringing them to trial. You must not consider it evidence of any guilt or draw any inference of guilt just because the defendant has been arrested and charged. Each charge against the defendant is set out on the information in a separate paragraph or count, and each offense charged must be considered separately by you in deciding the guilt or innocence of the defendant.
The trial proceeds in the following manner. First, the state will introduce evidence from its witnesses in support of the charges contained in the information. After the state has presented its evidence, the defendant may present evidence on her behalf, but is not obliged to do so. The law does not require an accused to prove her innocence or produce any evidence. If the defendant does present evidence, the state may then present further or what is called rebuttal evidence. At the conclusion of the evidence, each party has an opportunity to present oral argument in support of its case. The state has the right to make two arguments, the opening and closing arguments, and the defendant may make one argument. The reason the state has the right to make two arguments as against one for the defendant is that the law imposes on the state the burden of proving the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, therefore, it gives the state the right to make both the opening and closing arguments. You should understand that the arguments of counsel, both closing and any arguments made during the trial to the Court in connection with the questions of law are not considered evidence in the case. Arguments during the trial are intended to assist the Court in ruling on points of law, and closing arguments are intended to assist you in understanding the evidence and
the contention of the parties in this case. Finally, at the conclusion of all the evidence and the arguments of both sides, I will instruct you in detail as to the principles of law which you are to apply during the deliberations when you retire to consider the verdict. Your verdict must be unanimous.
I want to discuss briefly the different functions you and I have. My responsibility is to conduct the trial in an orderly, fair and efficient manner, to rule on the questions of law that arise during the trial and to instruct you as to law which applies to this case. It's your duty to accept the law as the Court states it to you. Your function, the function of the jury is to determine the facts. You're sole and exclusive judges of the facts, and you alone will determine the weight, the effect and value of the evidence as well as credibility or believability of the witnesses.
You must consider and weigh all the testimony of all the witnesses who appear before you, and you alone are to determine whether to believe any witness and the extent to which any witness may be believed. It's your responsibility to resolve any conflict in testimony which may arise during the course of the trial and to determine where the truth lies. You are entitled in the course of evaluating the evidence to draw any and all inferences which you find reasonable and logical from the evidence you hear. You may consider all of the evidence that is properly admitted in the case. The evidence includes the sworn testimony of witnesses, exhibits which are admitted into evidence, facts of which the Court may take judicial notice and facts stipulated to or agreed upon by counsel.
What is an exhibit? An exhibit is a document or a thing which is used or introduced in a trial. There are two kinds of exhibits; exhibits for identification and full exhibits. An exhibit for identification is an exhibit which is marked for identification only. But it may be referred to in one way or another during the trial, but not considered evidence. It's not until an exhibit becomes a full exhibit that it becomes evidence in the case. At that time, it may be read or shown to you, and in any event, you would have a full exhibit with you in the jury room when you are deliberating.
It might be during the trial certain facts will be established by what is called judicial notice or by stipulation or agreement without the necessity of formal proof by evidence. When that happens, I will say something to you like ladies and gentlemen, you may take it as a fact, without the necessity of formal proof that such and such is a fact. For example, I might take judicial notice of the fact that August 9th of 1983, for example, was a Friday, without the necessity of someone taking the stand and testifying with a calendar.
During the trial counsel on either side may object where the other side offers testimony or evidence which counsel believes is not admissible. It is the responsibility of counsel to object to evidence which he believes is not admissible, and you should not be prejudiced in any way against a lawyer who makes such an objection. Also, during the course of the trial, the Court will sustain objections by one attorney to a question asked by another. When that happens you should disregard the question and you must not speculate as to what the answer would have been. Also, if any testimony is ordered stricken, you should disregard that testimony and must not give it any weight in your deliberations. There may come times, for example, during the trial when a question will be asked and the answer given which you would hear before an objection could be made, and I might sustain an objection and order that testimony stricken. In that case, I will turn to you and order you to disregard what you've heard. I'm asking you to do what may be psychologically difficult to do, but you will have to do your best to accomplish, which is to create in your mind a separate compartment of things which are not considered evidence and put in that compartment what you heard and not consider it during the course of deliberation if I tell you not to consider it as evidence. Also, at some point during the trial I may ask you to retire to the jury room while a point of law is discussed by the Court and counsel, and you shouldn't resent that procedure but understand you're being asked to leave the room only so that that dispute or point of law may be resolved without the danger of you hearing what might be inadmissible evidence or hearing legal argument which could be confusing. We try to keep these instances to a minimum, but they do happen, and I urge you to be understanding. During the course of the trial, I will occasionally ask witnesses questions in order to bring out facts not completely covered in testimony. Don't assume I hold any opinion in the matter myself, you the jurors are to disregard any comments of the Court. You are to decide the case on the evidence presented in this case.
If this case is reported in the news media, you must disregard any newspaper, radio, television or other media reports of what you may see or hear. And if by inadvertence such news reports come to your attention, you should immediately put it aside and direct your attention elsewhere.
Finally, until this case is submitted to you at the conclusion of the Court's final instruction, you must not discuss it with anyone, not with members of your family or even your fellow jurors. You must not permit anyone to discuss the case with you. After it's submitted to you, you must discuss it only in the jury room and in the presence of your fellow jurors, and there are several important reasons for this. Why must you not discuss the case with anyone who is not a member of the jury? Because you must decide the case on the basis of what you see and hear in the courtroom. And if you discuss the case with someone else, that person will not have seen and heard the evidence, and therefore your verdict could be the result of conversations beyond the evidence in the case. Why must you not discuss the case even amongst yourselves until the case is over? Because it's a fact of human nature that if someone expresses an opinion on the case without having heard all the evidence and argument and legal instruction, it may be harder for that person to change his opinion later even though evidence or argument is presented which should in reason cause them to change their mind. And why must you then discuss the case only in the jury room in the presence of all the jurors? Because it's important that your verdict be the product of the collective judgment, in sight and wisdom of all of you, and if you discuss the case with only three or four of your fellows, the others will not have the benefit of that judgment.
At this point, the state will proceed and the state may call its first witness.
MR. SMITH: The state would call Scott Fain.
SCOTT FAIN, Principal of Kelly Middle School, [redacted], having been called as a witness on behalf of the state, after having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q Mr. Fain, I am going to ask you a few questions. I will ask you to speak up. That microphone isn't turned on. It won't amplify. I would ask you to direct your answers to the jury. Okay?
A Okay.
Q First off, Mr. Fain, you said you are currently employed as a principal?
A Yes.
Q At
A Yes.
Q How long have you been the principal at
A This is my fifth year at Kelly.
Q Okay. Is it fair to say then in 2004, you were the principal at
A That's correct.
Q Were you acting in the capacity as the principal at
A I was.
Q As part of your duties as a principal, did you interact with various teachers and substitute teachers?
A I do.
Q Okay. Let me get right to the meat of the matter and take you to the date in question, October 19th, 2004. Do you recall on that day -- I should put it this way. Let me go to a date after October 19th, 2004, maybe within a week. Do you recall coming to your attention any incident that may have happened by a substitute teacher in Mr. Napp's class?
A Yes. It was October 20th.
Q Is when you learned of it?
A Correct.
Q Let me go back. Mr. Napp is who?
A He is a seventh grade language arts teacher at Kelly.
Q Okay. And to your knowledge on October 19th, was Mr. Napp in the building?
A He was either being trained or working on some kind of writing prompts, which are tests. And he could have been in the building, but he was not in that classroom.
Q To your knowledge, he was not teaching his regular class?
A Correct.
Q And what type of class is that, do you recall, was it a language arts class?
A Yes. Seventh grade language arts.
Q Approximately what is the age group of the kids in the
A Twelve to thirteen years old.
Q To your knowledge at that time, were any of the kids sixteen years old or older?
A There would have been no students in the room sixteen years or older.
Q They would have been all in the thirteen range, twelve to thirteen?
A Maybe fourteen years old.
Q Some were in that area, correct?
A Yes.
Q You said, let me ask you this, have you had contact with an individual named Julie Amero?
A Yes, I have.
Q How did you have contact with Ms. Amero?
A She was a substitute teacher at Kelly prior to that. She subbed in the building several times.
Q Okay. Was Ms. Amero to your knowledge a substitute teacher on October 19th, 2004?
A She was.
Q Which classroom did she substitute in?
A She substituted for Mr. Napp on the 19th.
Q October 19th, correct?
A Correct.
Q Do you see Ms. Amero in the courtroom today?
A I do.
Q Could you please point at her and tell me the color of her shirt?
A She has a black or dark blue shirt on.
MR. SMITH: We would ask for the in-court identification.
THE COURT: The witness has identified the defendant.
MR. SMITH: Thank you.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q So on October 19th, 2004, did you hear on that date, hear anything of interest happening in the school specifically concerning Ms. Amero?
A I did not on the 19th, no.
Q Did anybody, specifically Ms. Amero, come to speak to you about anything going on in her classroom?
A I don't believe she came to me on the 19th, no.
Q So you specifically didn't talk to her about any thing?
A I don't believe so, no.
Q Subsequent to that, meaning after the 19th, obviously, did you learn that something of interest had happened while she was substituting in that class?
A Yes.
Q Okay, without telling us what you specifically learned, the communications, how did you learn about this?
A I got an e-mail, received an e-mail, electronic mail from the teacher, Mr. Napp.
Q Okay. And in that e-mail, he communicated information to you?
A Correct.
Q And when was this, approximately?
A It was the first thing in the morning, I believe. In the morning of the 20th.
Q The day after the incident?
A Yes.
Q But prior to that you never heard anything about it, correct?
A Yes. That's correct, I believe.
Q During the course of the day of the 20th or so, did you learn more information about what was going on?
A I did.
Q How did you learn that information?
A Well, the first chunk of information after reading the e-mail was I went with Mr. Napp to his classroom where he proceeded to pull up the history of the computer from the previous, the day before kind of thing.
Q From the 19th?
A Correct.
Q That would be the date the defendant was substituting in the class, correct?
A Yes.
Q What type of information was being pulled up by Mr. Napp an his computer?
A Well, the alarming parts were, could be classified as pornography, multiple pictures of naked men and women that were obviously alarming.
Q I'm going to delve in a little bit more. Some of the pornography was it explicit pornography, explicit meaning naked people on a school computer?
A Yes. It appeared to be of a sexual nature, yes.
Q Engaging in sexual acts, some of them?
A Some were, some were simply nude poses.
Q Based on -- and you saw that on the computer, correct?
A Correct.
Q Based on that, what did you do?
A Well, I listened to Mr. Napp explain his concern. At that time, he was a first- year teacher and he was very upset thinking he might be in some difficulty. I also listened to him tell me that the way he found out about what occurred was via --
MR. COCHEO: Objection, Your Honor, hearsay.
THE WITNESS: Was a student.
MR. SMITH: I don't think that is hearsay. We are not going for what was in a communication, just how he learned the communication.
MR. COCHEO: Objection withdrawn.
THE COURT: How he learned about it.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q We will go back. You said Mr. Napp learned initially about what was happening by what reason?
A By a student commenting to him via e-mail and to him personally.
Q Okay.
A I reviewed the data and then I did speak to MS. Amero about it.
Q At some point after the 19th -- either on the 20th or after the 20th, you actually spoke to Ms. Amero?
A She was subbing in the building the next day, on the 20th.
Q Did you have her come into your office?
A I did.
Q Let me break this up in context. Had she subbed prior to the 19th?
A Yes.
Q Without going into the specifics of what she was doing, had you talked to her about the Internet policy, her actions as to the Internet prior to that?
A Yes. Approximately two to three weeks, maybe a month before I had had some concerns from some of the teachers sharing that, you know, not actively teaching class.
Q I don't want to go into the specifics. Did you have a conversation with her about the school policy on accessing the Internet?
A I think, yes, I would have said to her something along the lines that she needed to be up teaching a class and not using the computer to great excess.
Q She was informed at some point she wasn't to use the computer or surfing to excess?
A To excess. We do provide some levels of use. It's acceptable to check one's personal e-mail from home.
Q I understand that. You had a conversation with her prior specifically about accessing the Internet excessively as you put it?
A Yes.
Q And was she informed of what the computer is supposed to be used for in school?
A Yes. I would believe so, yes.
Q Let me jump back to -- and that was before the 19th, correct?
A Yes. It would have been probably some time in early October, maybe late September.
Q Let me jump back to October 20th when you had her come into your office, do you recall having a conversation with her concerning the incident that happened?
A Yes.
Q And what was that -- first off, what did you talk to her about?
A I expressed to her that there was some concerns over the use of the computer on the previous day, and I told her that I had gone up and looked into the computer's history and that there was pornographic images on the computer.
Q Did she talk to you about what had happened as to why these pornographic images may he on the computer?
A Yes. She expressed that she had not accessed those pornographic images. She did make some reference to other students in the class having used the computer and attempting to explain that that is what occurred, some students had accessed it.
Q Did she give you any reason, other reason as to why this pornography would be on the computer on that date?
A Other than students possibly and then just inexplicably that the images were popping up throughout the day, no.
Q Okay.
A But those were the two explanations she gave me that students had used the teacher's computer throughout the day or at varying points in the day and she didn't know why, but they continued
to pop up and she was trying to shut them down.
Q Did she ever come to you on the 19th to tell you that was happening?
A She did not. To my recollection, she did not.
MR. SMITH: May I approach, Your Honor?
THE COURT: Yes.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING :
Q I am going to show you what has been premarked as State's Number 3 for Identification purposes only at this point. Could you look through that packet please.
A I know what it is.
Q Without telling us what is in it, could you hold it up?
A Yes.
Q Without telling us what is in that packet, could you tell us what it is?
A Those are class lists, computer-generated class lists from our student data system, Star Base, which lists all the classes and the corresponding times. There are my personal notes on those in addition to one of my secretary's notes that corresponds to the time sheets to those classes.
Q Did you normally in the course of your employment as a principal, did you have access to this information?
A Yes.
Q Did you actually access this material in relation to getting information about this case?
A I had my secretary do it. I did not, but I did have my secretary do it. That is why you see her notes at the time over what the time sheets were.
Q Did you provide that information to the police?
A I did.
Q Does one of that packet -- does that look like a fair and accurate representation of the information that was pulled up from the school computer from that day?
A That is.
MR. SMITH: at this point, I would ask that it be entered as a full exhibit.
MR. COCHEO: No objection, Your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. State's Exhibit 3.
(State's Exhibit 3 is marked into evidence)
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q Kelly Middle School is located in
A That's correct.
MR. SMITH: No further questions at this point.
MR. COCHEO: Could I have a moment, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Yes.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Good morning, Mr. Fain.
A Good morning.
Q Did you hear Ms. Amero state that she was having any problems in her classroom on the computer on October 19th?
A On October 19th, did she approach me is your question?
Q Yes.
A I can't recall that. She did offer that as her explanation on the 20th that students were using the computer inappropriately and students had been in the room inappropriately.
Q Do you know if she told any other teacher or staff member that she was having problems?
MR. SMITH: Objection, Your Honor, speculative.
THE COURT: Well, if he knows, he can answer.
THE WITNESS: Yes. It was reported to me later by the assistant --.
MR. SMITH: Objection. This is based on hearsay.
THE COURT: The objection would be hearsay. That's sustained.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Did you have any problems before with students looking at pornography on the computer?
MR. SMITH: Objection, irrelevant.
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Has any student or staff member complained about pop-ups?
MR. SMITH: Objection, irrelevant.
THE COURT: Well, I think if the question were framed about that classroom, in that classroom, I would overrule the objection.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q In that specific classroom?
A Specifically over pop-ups?
Q Yes.
A No.
Q Okay. What was your relationship like with Ms Amero?
A She was a substitute in the building. She had subbed approximately seven to eight times over the time. If you want me to define the relationship, she was a reasonably good sub. I had spoken to her in the past about being more active monitoring and working around the room as opposed to sitting.
Q She was basically a good teacher?
A She was a good sub, yes.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you very much.
THE COURT: Redirect?
MR. SMITH: Yes.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q You indicated that, he brought up, I should say, about her maybe speaking to other people; you don't know whether she spoke to other people, you weren't there?
A I was not, but it was reported to me by other people --
Q Other people said that she talked to other people?
A Yes.
Q The information you may have is obviously from a third party, correct, concerning what she said?
A Yes.
Q Do you know whether she said this information, whatever it was, on the day in question or was it after the information had come to light that there was questions about her use of the computer?
A There were two sources that I heard from. Do you want me to elaborate on this?
Q Let me put it in this frame. Do you know? You may or you may not. Do you know whether the information the defendant provided concerning what was happening, whether she made that communication before or after it had come to light that children had allegedly seen these pornographic images?
A I believe -- I am sorry, I am trying to get this out. The assistant principal shared with me after the fact that she had complained to her that some students were in the room and she kind of had to run them out of the room. They were in there without permission. Additionally, the music teacher shared with the assistant principal --
Q I understand.
A -- that Ms. Amero had shared the same thing, and she was advised to go see me or the assistant principal, and the assistant principal did inform me that she spoke to her. I was only informed of this after the fact, after this all came to light.
Q I understand that. What I am trying to get at is obviously without trying to go into what was said that is in already --
A Yes.
Q -- did she communicate this information before or do you know, before it came to light that she was allowing or the kids were seeing the pornographic images or was it after it came to light or do you not know?
A I guess I don't know. It was reported some time on the 19th that she made these statements.
Q To your knowledge -- it could be, let me put it this way. To your knowledge after the kids saw the pornographic images, were rumors starting to spread around the school concerning this?
A On the 20th.
Q And to your knowledge, it is the 20th, correct, that the rumors started?
A Yes.
Q To your knowledge, do you know whether rumors were starting on that same day, the 19th?
A Not to my knowledge.
Q Okay. But you don't know whether this, this information she communicated to the various people was made in response because it actually happened or because she thought the rumors were spreading or things were spreading concerning her?
A I don't.
MR. COCHEO: Objection, asked and answered. He said he didn't know.
THE COURT: That's fine. He said he didn't. Any recross?
RECROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Mr. Fain, you were told about this incident the day after it happened, is that correct?
A That's correct.
Q You don't know if any rumors were spread before that?
A That's correct.
Q So you're not aware if Ms. Amero went to anybody about this incident on the date, the 19th?
A Could you repeat the question?
Q You're not aware if Ms. Amero went to anybody on the day, the 19th, these incidents actually occurred?
A No, I don't know when she went to the assistant principal and to the music teacher conclusively. It was some time before it came to my attention though.
MR. COCHEO: Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Your Honor.
MR. SMITH: No further questions.
THE COURT: You may step down. Thank you very much.
MR. SMITH: The state would call Matthew Napp.
MATTHEW GERARD NAPP, having been called as a witness on behalf of the state, after having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q Mr. Napp, is it Matthew Napp?
A Yes.
Q Mr. Napp, I'm going to ask you a few questions. I will ask you to speak loudly. That microphone is not amplifying, it's not even on, as a matter of fact. I ask when you make your answers, please direct them to the jury. Okay?
A Yes.
Q How are you currently employed?
A I'm a seventh grade English teacher, language arts teacher at
Q Is that your first job as a teacher?
A Yes. I've been there for three years.
Q And you started there, obviously, it was your first job out of college, correct?
A Not straight out of college, out of the master's program I did.
Q Okay. Your first job, a teaching job?
A Yes. First teaching job.
Q Would it be fair to say on October 19th, 2004, you were employed at
A Yes.
Q And you were teaching what grade?
A I was teaching seventh grade.
Q Okay. In seventh grade language arts classes, correct?
A Yes.
Q On October 19th, on or about that date, do you recall whether you were working in your classroom on that day?
A I was not in the classroom. I was learning to score standardized testing. I was in the district, but I was out of the building.
Q So you had to take classes to learn how to --
A It was training.
Q Teacher training?
A Yes.
Q Let me ask you this, at any point during that day did you actually go to your classroom?
A No, I did not. Well, in the morning I stopped in to make sure my lessons were set up for the substitute for that day. It was the first time I was out.
Q The first time you had been out of the class?
A Yes, out of the classroom.
Q A little nervous, your first time?
A Yes.
Q You go into the classroom, what time did you get there in the morning?
A About 7:30.
Q And what were you doing in the classroom at this point in time?
A I was making sure the work was set out for the kids, it was out in the front there for the substitute, any plans, seating charts, things like that. And I turned the computer on to check the lunch menu, and just in case for attendance, because we use a program on the computer for daily attendance.
Q Okay. In your classroom, what are the approximate ages of the children in your classroom?
A They can range anywhere from eleven to fifteen.
Q Any sixteen-year-olds to your knowledge in your classroom?
A No.
Q On October 19th?
A No.
Q Or around that time, I should say?
A No.
Q So when you signed up onto your computer, you logged in, correct?
A Yes.
Q And a screen popped up, Windows and that stuff, correct?
A Yes.
Q Were there any pop-ups of interest on the computer when you logged in?
A No. The normal start up, just a plain desktop.
Q And no pop-up ads for travel?
A No.
Q Pornography?
A No.
Q At some point, you are there until approximately when?
A About ten after 8:00, quarter after 8:00.
Q Okay. And as you are there in the morning, do the kids start to file in?
A They come in around 8:00 o'clock.
Q They are filing in the classroom at 8:00 o'clock, correct?
A Yes.
Q Let me step back a second, is it your custom to allow your students to come up to your computer and use that computer?
A Not at all.
Q How is your classroom set up specifically in relation to the use of the computers?
A There are six student computers that they can use and only use during projects, whether it was research or anything to type out a paper, but I would monitor as the Internet is restricted to only students who sign an agreement from them and their parents that they talked about how to use the Internet, and they can use it appropriately.
Q To your knowledge, had you ever allowed children, students, I should say, to use your computer to surf the Internet?
A No, never.
Q On the day in question when you logged in initially and you were there until approximately 8:10, 8:15, you said?
A Correct.
Q Did you ever sign into the Internet?
A I didn't sign into the Internet, I did my e-mail, which is kind of connected to the Internet.
Q I understand that. You logged onto your e-mail, you downloaded your information. When you were downloading information, your e-mails, did you ever get any pop-up ads specifically related to pornography?
A No. The e-mail program is completely separate from the Internet.
Q When is the last time you accessed the Internet on that computer prior to October 19th?
A I can't recall exactly. I might have used it the day before.
Q Let me ask you in this way, the last time you accessed the internet, do you recall any pop-up pornographic ads popping up on your computer?
A Not at all.
Q Okay. Do you remember any pornographic images coming up through the Internet on any space on your computer?
A No.
Q On the day in question, October 19th, 2004, as far as you know, you were not getting pornographic images just randomly on there coming up to your computer, correct?
A No.
Q Now, let's go forward a little bit to approximately 8:00 o'clock when the kids started to come in, correct?
A Yes.
Q Is this a homeroom class?
A Yes.
Q Homeroom kids start coming in the seventh grade classroom?
A Yes.
Q They all start coming in, filing in. At any point, do you allow the kids to come up and access your computer?
A No, definitely not during homeroom.
Q At some point does a substitute teacher come in?
A Yes. As the kids were coming in.
Q So the kids are already in the classroom, correct?
A They are either at their locker or coming in the homeroom.
Q Either right outside the classroom or inside?
A Yes.
Q There were children already inside the classroom or inside the --
A Yes.
Q -- There were children already in the classroom, correct?
A Yes.
Q When the substitute came in?
A There were a few.
Q A few.
A Maybe two.
Q And more than one come in as it's happening, correct?
A Correct.
Q If you had the opportunity, would you recognize that substitute teacher that came in?
A Probably not. It was very brief, and it was here are the lessons. Because I was running late to where I needed to be for the day.
Q If I'm going to ask you to look around the courtroom and see if you could identify that person, you might not be able to, correct?
A Correct.
Q I will ask you to do so anyway and point that person out by the color of their shirt.
A I can't.
Q That's fine. And the interaction you had with this substitute, was it a male or female substitute?
A I believe it was female.
Q The interaction you had with the female substitute occurred over how long?
A Maybe two minutes.
Q Okay. And you gave her the information, correct?
A
Correct.
Q While you were there, the kids in the class were filing in and the substitute was there, any kids had gone on the computer?
A No.
Q Approximately what time did you leave?
A About 8:15.
Q And what time did classes start?
A Homeroom ends about 8:15, and they have a minute to get to their next class, 8:16. Eight-fifteen they should be shifting, depending on the announcements and late buses.
Q From the time you got there in the morning through the first homeroom, to the time you left, any of the kids access your computer?
A No.
Q Anybody that you know, yourself included, access the Internet?
A No.
Q To your knowledge at any point did ads or images or various pornographic web pages start popping up on your computer?
A No.
Q And then you left, correct?
A Yes.
Q And you went to your training?
A Right.
Q At some point on October 19th, 2004, did you learn information about what may have occurred in your classroom?
A That night. Earlier in the year, I had given the kids as a way of extra contact my screen name for instant messages for either parents or their questions for work. And it was about 6:00 or 7:00, I got an instant message from one of my students stating that --
MR. COCHO: Objection, hearsay, Your Honor.
MR. SMITH : That's fine, Judge.
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. SMITH: I will withdraw that.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q Six or seven at night, you had an instant message, correct?
A Yes.
Q Without telling us the substance of what was in that instant message, did that message cause you concern?
A Yes.
Q Did you get more information over the night?
A Over the night, not much, no one else.
Q It was one instant message that alerted you?
A Yes.
Q What did you do based on receiving that information?
A I went early the next day to check the history on my computer.
Q You went to your computer, the teacher's computer?
A Correct.
Q In the same classroom where the female substitute teacher had gone?
A Correct.
Q Okay. Approximately what time was that, do you recall?
A About 7:30, maybe 7:20.
Q To get into your classroom, anybody else around at that point?
A No.
Q What did you do?
A I turned on the computer and there is a way I can just check basic files that have been placed on the computer within however long you make the time frame, and I just searched for yesterday.
Q Yesterday meaning the 19th?
A The 19th. And I saw a bunch of things come up that had been placed on the hard drive on the 19th, the day before.
Q And these were -- the information you gleaned off the computer was these various websites had been accessed on the 19th?
A Well, it places everything. So if a picture is on a website, it gives it its own name and it gives it a website. So there is a whole bunch of different information, and I can tell whether it was a picture file or if it was an Internet address or something else.
Q Did you see various Internet access sites?
A I saw a bunch of different sites of some pictures that had questionable names.
Q On the Internet site as you say, as an example, what drew your attention to those various sites?
A Some of the names. I clicked on one and I don't remember the name, but it ended up being a discussion board about lesbians.
Q Were there any images on that page you clicked on?
A No, not on that page.
Q Were there other images that had been placed on your hard drive on the day before that you saw at least in the file format?
A In the file format, I didn't open anything that had a picture name on it.
Q And some of the names led you to believe - what was the content of those pictures?
A That it was pornographic, it was some sort of - it was all sexual in nature.
Q The title of those various GIF images were pornographic in nature in your opinion?
A Yes.
Q Based on the information you got, based on accessing that one page concerning the lesbian issues and the various names of websites and pictures, what did you do?
A Again, I was scheduled to be out of the building, and not knowing if this was unintentional, I e-mailed my principal and said this is what I was told, this is what was found and I asked how to proceed on with anything.
Q And what did you do?
A That day I left again, again I was scheduled to do some more training.
Q At some point did you talk to the principal?
A I can't recall if I actually verbally sat down with him. I know there was some interaction. I can't really recall what happened after the e-mail.
Q At some point, did you have him come to your classroom and look at the computer?
A Yes, I showed him.
Q Was that on or about the time you found those pictures on the computer?
A No. I believe he came back later in the afternoon.
Q It was on the 20th?
A Yes.
Q Did you show him the various -- is it a log?
A Yes, it's a log.
Q And the log basically says what has been accessed from the Internet. Did you show him that log?
A Yes.
Q Did you bring up any websites or photographs at that point in time?
A Not that I can recall.
Q Okay. Any more interactions concerning this case?
A With that I had the IT professional for the district come in and went through more extensive search of the hard drive, and we actually printed out some of the log from the screen.
Q Were you there when this happened?
A I was there when the IT --
Q You watched him?
A Yes.
Q Were you communicating to him what you had seen?
A Yes.
Q Any other interaction on this case?
A It was just - I came in one day and my computer hard drive was gone and ended up having a brief talk with the police, and I can't remember, it was probably a couple of weeks afterwards.
Q Concerning what happened?
A Yes.
Q Or what you had learned?
A Correct.
MR. SMITH: No further questions.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Good morning, Mr. Napp. I'm going to sit a little while, I have a problem with my legs. Mr. Napp, have you had any problems on your computer before this incident in question?
A No.
Q How about after this incident?
MR. SMITH: Objection, Your Honor, I will ask specifically if he is talking about the computer in question. MR. COCHEO: Yes.
MR. SMITH: That's fine. If it's just the computer in question that was alleged to have been used in this incident.
THE COURT: You can answer.
THE WITNESS: Problems in which way? Like ups?
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Yes.
A No.
Q Do you search the Internet or use the Internet frequently?
A Yes.
Q Was there a time when you were teaching that you saw a child misbehave and use your computer?
A Can you clarify that?
Q Was there any time when you saw a child misbehaving by using your computer?
A Using my computer, no.
Q Did you ever say to Ms. Amero that she could use the computer or check the e-mail?
A I believe I might have stated that I left it on and she could use it if she wanted to.
Q Did you log in for Ms. Amero?
A Not for her, I logged in with my username and my password. That just unlocked the computer, and I left it on as I was running out.
Q After this incident, did you hear anyone discuss -- were students talking
about it to your knowledge?
A I wasn't there, again, the day after I was told. I don't know what was being said.
Q The next day, did you discuss the incident with Ms. Amero in the hallway? Was it the next day?
A I believe she might have stopped and said that.
MR. SMITH: Objection, hearsay. This would be self-serving hearsay. If it is going to be something she said, she should testify to it.
MR. COCHEO: This is just a question and answer, if she discussed it with him.
MR. SMITH: If it's generic that she discussed it without the substance --
THE COURT: It's a yes or no question, you can answer it. Would you repeat it?
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q The next day, did Ms. Amero stop you in the hallway and discuss this incident with you?
A Yes, briefly.
MR. SMITH: Thank you.
THE COURT: I just have a question.
BY THE COURT:
Q Logistically, is the teacher's computer, the teacher's computer on your desk?
A The way I had it set up?
Q Yes.
A My teacher's desk was this way along the windows and the teacher's computer was this way, pointing towards the door to walk in. So there was just enough space for the teacher to be within that area. (Indicating)
Q So you would be on a computer and see kids coming in?
A Yes.
Q So the screen is facing you?
A Not the class, it's facing me here. The door is here. I did have it, the way the room was set up, they were in groups of four. There were a couple of rows here that might have been able to see the screen.
Q Normally it's facing you and you can also see the classroom?
A I can monitor those computers over there and the rest of the classroom. (Indicating)
THE COURT: Any questions based on my question?
MR. SMITH: Yes. And based on his, also.
BY MR. SMITH:
Q The defense attorney brought up the fact that you may have told the defendant she could use your computer, correct?
A Yes.
Q Did you ever tell her she could access pornographic websites on your computer?
A No.
Q Things like e-mail or various information for the class, correct?
A Yes.
Q You never had one of your students inappropriately use your computer before, correct?
A Correct.
Q At some point, they have used your computer with you monitoring?
A Very, very extreme cases, and that has been probably within the last year or two because I use it for -- whether it was research or papers, but for the most part they are not allowed on my computer.
Q Touching on what the Judge brought up, the way your classroom was set up, is your computer segregated from the other computers?
A It's on the other side of the room.
Q There was no way that a student would mistake your computer for one of the computers they were supposed to use?
A The first thing I tell them when I started is that it is my area and they are to stay away from it due to either my computer or other legal files I have for special education students or things like that. They just can't be in that area.
Q You also said your students never accessed that computer, specifically the Internet, correct?
A Correct.
MR. SMITH: No further questions.
BY MR. COCHEO:
Q isn't it true you yourself never saw Ms. Amero access anything pornographic on your computer?
A I wasn't there that day.
Q Did you ever see her access anything on your computer at all?
A I had no interaction with her, I couldn't have.
Q Let's get this straight because there seems to be some confusion. You said at one point no students ever used your computer and you said at some point they do use it. They use it or they don't, which is it?
A When they have used it like I said, it has been probably more this year. At that point, I was two years into teaching and no one used that computer. This was my computer. To be honest, this year, I let one use it, but I was standing right behind that student.
Q And you are not there twenty-four hours a day, am I right?
A I am just there from the beginning of school until the end of the school day.
Q You are not there every time a student is there, you are not there, is that correct?
A Every time a student is there, I am there.
Q Every time there was a student in that room, you are there 100 percent of the time?
A Correct.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you. No further questions, Your Honor.
MR. SMITH: No questions.
THE COURT: You may step down. Thank you so much.
MR. SMITH: The state would call Jennybeth Whitaker.
JENNYBETH WHITAKER, having been called as a witness on behalf of the state, after having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q What did you say your last name was?
A It's Whitaker
Q At any point, was your last name Fagin?
A It was.
Q It just changed recently?
A Yes.
Q Are you the same Jennybeth Fagin Whitaker - How are you currently known?
A As Jennybeth Whitaker.
Q What is your job?
A My job is as a sign language interpreter.
Q And what does that entail?
A Communication, facilitation between a deaf child or a deaf adult and a hearing child or a hearing adult .
Q Sometimes did that encompass you working in a public school system?
A Yes, it does.
Q In this situation, what would you be doing?
A I would normally in that kind of situation, I would be interpret in g for a deaf child who was mainstreamed in a public school.
Q Meaning coming in to a regular classroom?
A Yes.
Q And hopefully being taught within that regular classroom setting, correct?
A Yes.
Q And were you employed as a sign language interpreter on or about October 19th of 2004?
A Yes.
Q And on or about that time frame, where were you employed, physically where were you working?
A At
Q In
A That was my third year.
Q And had you been at the
A Yes.
Q With the same child?
A Yes.
Q On October 19th, 2004 -- let me back up a little bit. Sorry. Do you know a teacher by the name of Mr. Napp?
A Yes.
Q Matthew Napp, correct?
A Yes.
Q How do you know him?
A I met him when my student was assigned to his class.
Q Okay. And had you been in the class interpreting for your student?
A Yes.
Q And he is a seventh grade language arts teacher, correct?
A Yes.
Q Do you recall on October 19th, 2004, if you were working in the capacity as an interpreter for your student?
A Yes.
Q Do you recall being in Mr. Napp's classroom?
A Yes.
Q On that date, do you recall there being a substitute teacher?
A Yes.
Q If you had the opportunity to look around the courtroom, do you think you might be able to point out that person?
A It's possible, I don't --
Q I understand if you don't. Do you see that person in the courtroom today?
A Not that I recognize.
Q Okay. And is that the only time you had seen that substitute teacher?
A Yes.
Q Was that substitute teacher a female teacher or male teacher?
A Female.
Q Now, let me ask you this, approximately what time did you come in to the classroom?
A Classes usually started just before 9:00, right around 9:00 o' clock.
Q You go in to the classroom at 9:00 o'clock?
A Correct.
Q While you were in there, first off, what is the initial process on that day, October 19th, what was the initial process you engaged in with the teacher that day?
A Normally, I would just go in and interpret. Usually there is a brief instruction, how I am the interpreter, and that's about it. The teacher will conduct the class and I will sign.
Q Where were you -- This happened on the 19th?
A Yes.
Q Where were you in relation to the substitute teacher on that day?
A In the beginning of the class, I was in front of the room for the instructional time and then I sat with my student in the back of the room.
Q And who was with you when you were in front of the class?
A The substitute teacher.
Q Were you standing next to each other?
A Yes.
Q What happened after the general instruction?
A They were given an assignment to my recollection to work in some small groups. And then the children situated themselves. I walked back with my student in the group and the substitute teacher went to the teacher's desk.
Q Did you see what she was doing at the teacher's desk when she went there?
A I believe that she sat at the computer.
Q And to your knowledge, did she log onto any programs?
A As I was walking past, she was getting onto the computer.
Q And did you see anything happen, meaning did she log onto any specific programs that you recognized, on the Internet that you recognized, anything like that?
A Nothing that I recognized.
Q You don't know what she was doing, correct?
A No.
Q You do know that she did go on the computer and began doing something there, correct?
A Yes.
Q You were in the classroom for the entire course of the classroom?
A Yes.
Q At any point when you were in the classroom, did you see any kids go up and use that computer?
A No.
Q Okay. And was she the person --. During the course of the classroom, was she using the computer almost exclusively?
A Yes.
Q Did you ever get on the computer?
A No.
Q Did she ever come up to you during the course while you were there and indicate to you that there were pornographic images on her computer that she didn't understand?
A No.
Q Did she ever come to you and indicate to you that anything whatsoever was wrong with that computer?
A No.
Q Any questionable material?
A No.
Q At any point, did you actually communicate with her about her leaving the classroom?
A Yes. She asked me to supervise her students. She wanted to use the ladies' room.
Q She wanted to make sure somebody was there covering the class?
A Yes.
Q What did you tell her?
A I told her that was not within the scope of my duties. I was not permitted to supervise students.
Q To your knowledge, there was an adult, meaning the substitute teacher was in the classroom the whole time?
A Yes.
Q And she never let anybody else use the computer, correct?
A No, not to my knowledge.
MR. SMITH: No further questions.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Good morning, Ms. Whitaker.
A Good morning.
Q Ms. Whitaker, you said that, you testified that Ms. Amero left the classroom to use the bathroom.
A No. She did not leave the classroom. She asked if I would supervise her students so that she could, and it's not within my parameters to be able to supervise students, so I told her I was unable to watch the kids. I wasn't permitted to do so.
Q I want to show you this statement --. Let me show it to the state first. I will ask if you recognize that statement.
A Yes, I do.
Q Is that your signature at the bottom?
A Yes.
MR. COCHEO: Your Honor, I am showing her a statement dated 2004.
THE COURT: Are you entering this?
MR. COCHEO: I am going to use it for cross examination.
THE COURT: So it's for identification only?
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Ms. Whitaker, in the third paragraph of your statement you say the substitute did not remove herself from the computer except for asking you briefly to supervise the class while she left the classroom. Do you recall saying that?
A That is my recollection.
Q And you testified that you did not see her operate the computer containing pornography, is that correct?
A That's correct.
Q And you don't recall Ms. Amero requesting to leave the room because she needed help?
A No, I do not.
MR. COCHEO: Nothing further. Thank you, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Redirect?
MR. SMITH: Yes.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q You agree with me that context is everything, correct, sometimes context is important, correct?
A Yes.
Q If you read the whole letter and not leave parts out, in fact, don't you say I do recall the substitute did not remove herself from the computer except to ask me to briefly supervise the class while she left the classroom. That's what the defense asked you, correct?
A Yes.
Q And you said I politely informed her I was unable to do so, and she returned to Mr. Napp's desk.
A Yes.
Q And she never indicated to you she was having an issue with the computer?
A No.
Q She never actually left the classroom?
A No.
Q She was there the whole time?
A Yes.
Q Accessing the computer, correct?
A Yes.
Q No one else to your knowledge accessed the computer, correct?
A Not to my knowledge.
MR. SMITH: No further questions.
THE COURT: Recross?
RECROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q When you say not to your knowledge, you don't know if anybody accessed the computer; is that correct?
A Not to my knowledge.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you. Nothing further, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Anything further?
FURTHER REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q Not to your knowledge. You were in the classroom watching what was going on, am I right?
A Yes.
Q You were in the classroom for a one-hour time frame, approximately?
A Just about an hour.
Q From 9:00 to approximately --
A Ten o'clock.
MR. SMITH: No further questions.
THE COURT : Anything further?
MR. COCHEO: No.
THE COURT: You can step down.
MR. SMITH: The state calls Robert Hartz as the next witness.
THE COURT: Before the state has its next witness, we will take a recess.
(Recess taken)
THE COURT: Bring the jury back.
(Jury returns )
THE COURT: Just so you know that 1:00 o'clock we break for lunch from 1:00 to 2:00. Is the state prepared with the next witness?
MR. SMITH: The state would call Robert Hartz to the stand.
ROBERT HARTZ, having been called as a witness on behalf of the state, after having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q Good afternoon, Mr. Hartz.
A Good afternoon.
Q I will ask you a few questions. I will ask you to respond verbally, because that microphone doesn't amplify. I am also going to ask you when you give your responses if you will direct them to the jury. Okay?
A Sure.
Q What do you currently do for a living?
A I work in the Norwich Public School System. I am the information services manager.
Q How long have you been engaged in that capacity with the
A I've worked for the Norwich Public Schools for a little over eight years.
Q And prior to that, what did you do?
A Prior to that, I had been involved in computer science from the late '60s, early '70s working for some main frame manufacturers, such as IBM, Edwards Food Stores, CIGNA. I worked a little bit for CHUBB and I did some consulting work, and I've been involved with PCs since the early '90s.
Q Consulting work specifically on computer work?
A Yes.
Q What are your duties with the Norwich Public School System?
A I'm responsible for just about everything technology wise; personal computers in the classroom, the servers that provide programs and services to the PCs, to the switches, to the network, to the routers, to the firewalls, and making sure that all of that works together.
Q And were you employed in this capacity in October of 2004?
A Yes, I was.
Q At some point, do you recall being called in to evaluate a specific PC in the
A Yes, I do. I believe it was the day after the incident apparently occurred, I was contacted either by the superintendent, Dr. Frechette, or Scott Fain, the principal of the
Q Now, as background to your knowledge, when a person accesses an Internet website on a PC, is that information stored anywhere?
A With the firewall we were using at that time, which was a combination of hardware and software, the software was something called Raptor, all Internet access is, whether you are going to Google, wherever, it all goes through the firewall, all accesses from all 2,800 PCs in the system go through this one firewall. And this particular firewall logged who the request came from and where it was going. So if I went to Google, there was an entry in that firewall that said this particular PC went to Google at this particular time.
Q Now, would that information be stored anywhere else other than the firewall?
A On the individual PC, there are some files that are stored on the individual PC. Cookies are stored out there which are little things that websites put on your PC to keep track of you and maybe keep things like passwords, and there is also a folder called temporary Internet files. And occasionally, quite often websites will put them in the temporary Internet files folder.
Q That is some of the places this is stored, correct?
A Yes. Those are the two places at the Norwich Public Schools where I know that information could have been stored.
Q And information that you would have access to, correct?
A Yes.
Q Okay. Now, you were called in to evaluate a specific computer.
A I was told that one of our teachers had had a substitute in the previous day and this substitute might have accessed inappropriate websites, and I was to look at what we call the teacher's computer. Each room each classroom in
Q Now, you mentioned that 2,000 computers go through the same server, correct?
A Yes.
Q Is there any way to identify which specific computer left which specific log on the service?
A The way that is done is each PC in the system has a unique address. It's called an IP address or Internet protocol. Each PC has a unique address. The firewall, when it records an Internet access, records that particular IP address, it's kind of like, you know, your home address, they know where to send the mail. Because when a website responds, like if Yahoo! will respond, the firewall has to say it comes from that, where did it go. It goes to this Internet address. He has got to know where it came from and where it came from is a personal computer with that address.
Q So based on the information you gleaned basically the I P address, you were able to connect the information on the server and also the specifics as to the specific PC, is that correct?
A Yes. We can correspond, watch on the PC Internet by looking at the firewall log.
Q So at some point, you were called to evaluate same activity that may have happened, correct?
A Yes.
Q I'm sorry, what day were you called in?
A I believe it was the day after the incident, which would have been October 20th.
Q Initially, what did you do when you went to go investigate this?
A The first thing I did is I went in to the room and it was during that free period, and I talked to the teacher, Mr. Napp, a little bit, and he basically confirmed what Scott Fain and Dr. Frechette had said. There was concern that some inappropriate sites were accessed. I then went to the teacher's computer in that room, his computer, and the first thing I did was I took the IP address, because I was going to need that later, so I recorded the IP address. And then I went into the cookies file. The cookies didn't show me a whole lot. But then I went into the temporary Internet files, and that is a number of files that were dated the previous day, October 19th, with time stamps starting I believe around 8:30, 8:35, and going through the end of the day. And so I looked at these and I saw certain sites that were accessed from this PC. As I recall, it started out with access to AOL.
Q I will stop you for a second before we get to that part. You indicated there was a time stamp on the computer, is that correct?
A There is a time stamp on the computer when this particular file and the temporary Internet files is modified, the date and the time is stuck in the directory.
Q Is that time stamp based --. Let me put this in context. The information you gleaned from the PC, does that time stamp come directly from the PC or does it come from the server?
A It actually is the time on the PC.
Q So could the time on the PC be different from the time on the server?
A It could.
Q Okay. On this particular computer, this is the computer in Mr. Napp's class, correct?
A Correct.
Q Did you notice any discrepancy between the time on the computer and the time on the server?
A Yes. We noticed when we went back to the firewall we looked at the logs, there was a ten-minute discrepancy. I forget whether the PC was ten minutes earlier or ten minutes later, but there was about a ten-minute discrepancy.
Q And who enters the information on the server?
A The time on the server was entered manually, and it was probably entered when we installed it back around 1999 or 2000. Somebody either had a bad watch or liked to be ahead of time or something like that. It was a manual entry.
Q How is the time entered on the PC?
A The PC, all PCs in
Q I will make sure this is clear. Is the e-mail server different?
A Yes.
Q The server where the logs are kept?
A Yes. The firewall just does firewall processing, contents filtering- type processing. The e-mail is a different vendor that just handles our five or six e-mail accounts.
Q The actual wall, the time could be off on two of them?
A Actually, yes. That 's true.
Q When you were investigating the PC that was used here and the firewall server, did you notice a discrepancy in the time?
A Yes, I did.
Q Approximately how much was that?
A Like I said, it was ten or twelve minutes. I don't remember who was faster and who was slower.
Q Now that we have that said, you went to the room, correct?
A Correct.
Q And you spoke with Mr. Napp, correct?
A Yes.
Q And then you accessed the logs from the PC, correct?
A Yes. I looked at the PC first, temporary Internet files and the cookies.
Q And when you accessed the log from the PC, did you see various websites that had been accessed there?
A The temporary Internet files showed on 10/19. On October 19th, there was a number of websites accessed.
Q Okay. And the various websites I believe you mentioned at some point e-mail.
A One site that was accessed had, apparently was accessed the first thing in the morning, and that was an AOL. It appeared to me one of the things being done on AOL was to check an e-mail account.
Q Did you see other websites accessed in that time frame?
A In the early morning between 8:30 and say somewhere around 9:30, in addition to AOL, I saw Orbitz, www.Orbitz.com accessed. That is a travel-type site where you can buy tickets, make hotel reservations and that type of thing. And I saw a hairstyle site accessed, something like Hairstyles. com.
Q At any point, did you come across some websites that caused you to be concerned that some inappropriate material was being accessed?
A After these sites were accessed, it was probably around 9:30 or so, I did see entries in the temporary Internet file folder that caused me to be concerned that, yes, this PC had been used to access pornographic or inappropriate sites.
Q Based on you having the PC and getting that information, did you then print out any of the information?
A I tried to get --. It's not the easiest thing for me to get the logs from the temporary Internet folder, but I did print out pages from the temporary Internet -- sorry, from that folder that contained the temporary Internet files. Then I printed them in time and date sequence.
MR. SMITH: If I may approach the witness please.
THE COURT : Yes.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q I'm showing you what has been premarked as State's Exhibit Number 1 for Identification purposes only at this point. Without telling us what is in that document, can you tell us what that document is?
A This is a directory listing of the PC Windows temporary Internet files folder.
Q Have you had a chance to go through that information?
A I did go through it back in 2004. I have glanced at it since.
Q Since you glanced at it in the last few days, correct?
A Yes, I have.
Q To your knowledge, is that the information that you took off the computer in question from October 19th?
A Yes, it is.
Q And you took it off on the 20th, you said, correct?
A That would be true.
Q As you go through that information, is that an accurate representation of what you saw on the screen and what you printed out in that computer?
A This is actually what I did print out. And looking at it recently in the past few days, it looks like there are some gaps, especially after lunch. I probably did not print the entire folder.
Q What we have there is a fair and accurate copy of what you printed, correct?
A Absolutely.
MR. SMITH: At this point, we would ask that it be entered as a full exhibit.
THE COURT: Any objection?
MR. COCHEO: No objection.
(State's Exhibit 1 marked into evidence)
MR. SMITH: I will publish that to the jury. I will put it up on the screen, it's easier to see.
THE COURT : For those of us who might need glasses, it would be good to have it on the screen.
MR. SMITH: I will not publish it all, just to get the gist of what is going on.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q I want to show you what has come in as, I will show you what we just put in as State's 1. I Believe you indicated that initially they started out, and I notice here the time it goes up, is that correct?
A That's correct. I printed the newest to the oldest.
Q It goes from 8:39 to 8:47, :48, 8:48, is that correct?
A That's what it appears to be, yes.
Q And you initially stated that the computer was accessing the web mail, AOL web mail sites, correct?
A Yes.
Q The column that you are pointing to contains the web page that was accessed that put this file or modified this file that might have already been on the computer so you can see in here it's AOL where it says web mail docs, AOL. So I made the assumption that that was accessed to the AOL e-mail account.
Q That is a site that was accessed, correct, not assuming what they were doing on the site, correct?
A Correct.
Q On the next page, I believe you indicated also that the computer also accessed an Orbitz site or hairstyle site, correct?
A Yes.
Q The hairstyle site is approximately 9:00 a. m., correct, if you can see it?
A Yes. That column on the right is the date and time stamp that that file was modified.
Q Various hairstyle sites, and I believe you also say that this computer accessed hairstyling and Orbitz site, that is the site of the travel you stated?
A Yes. There is an entry for Orbitz.
Q Around 9:15 or so, correct?
A That is what it appears to be, yes.
Q And then at some point you indicated, and I will show this, more Orbitz sites, correct?
A Correct.
Q At some point, you indicated that it changed over to some sites that were questionable in nature to you, correct?
A And I think on this page is where you see some of that.
Q Approximately 9:24 I see here there is an access to [redacted]. Again, this comes from this computer, correct?
A Yes.
Q From Mr. Napp's computer?
A Correct.
Q These are various pages listed on the web pages.
A It's an indication that that site has been hit and actually when a picture is pulled down, you get another entry inhere. But at 9:24, that site was accessed.
Q Various information from that site, various pages from the Internet came from that site, correct?
A Yes.
THE COURT: You said at 9:24 on the 19th?
MR. SMITH: 9:24 on October 19th, correct?
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: Okay.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q And after that site at 10:06 approximately, [redacted], again from the same computer, correct?
A From the same computer.
Q In going up, I see several entries on this same website, and then on 10:12 I see another website, [redacted], is that correct?
A That's correct, also.
Q And that also is from the same computer?
A Same computer.
Q And finally, more cheating lesbians until you get to approximately 10:31, I see [redacted], same computer, correct?
A Same computer.
Q And going back to 10:39 on [redacted] and various other sites, correct?
A That's correct.
Q Now, to be fair, some sites were clearly not pornographic that you took to be pornographic from their titles, correct?
A That's correct. I took them to be pornographic from their titles, and suspicious from their titles.
Q Not all the sites?
A Not all the sites. AOL and Orbitz.
Q Where people go to check their e-mail?
A Yes.
Q After you got the information off the computer, did you go to the server?
A Yes. I was concerned. I didn't want to make a judgment right away from this PC -- I wanted to corroborate what I had already seen. I wanted to verify it. I knew if I went back to the central office and accessed the server, then I could access the logs that were kept from the date of the 19th.
Q Did you go back to check the servers approximately on the same day, the 20th?
A After I looked at the PC, I went back to see the server, the firewall.
Q How were you able to correlate that computer PC to the specific information that was relevant on the firewall?
A Like I said, the firewall --. We kept a log of all Internet accesses from every one of our 2,000 PCs. It's a pretty voluminous file. The first thing I did was I went there and I secured, I got the file from the 19th, at midnight every night that firewall would close down that day's logs. We might have seven or eight logs out there. The first thing I did was I got the log from the 19th and I secured it. I made a copy of it. So now I had a copy to work with, and I ran a filter through it like you have 2,000 PC entries in this potentially, I also ran a filter that only pulled out those entries that were made by actions of the PC that I had gotten the IP address from, Mr. Napp's PC.
Q How did you get that IP address?
A I looked at it when I first looked at his PC. There's a command you can use, it's called WIN IPCFG and that will tell you what the IP address of that machine is.
Q You specifically got the IP address?
A His computer, 10 dot 2 dot 19 dot something. I don't recall what the something was.
Q Did you go through that server log?
A Like I said, I filtered out the server log. I only had those from Mr. Napp's PC, and then I matched those against what I was seeing from his computer, and they did match. So where I saw that this PC had accessed AOL, the firewall log was telling me yes, that accessed AOL. Where it was Orbitz, it accessed Orbitz, where it was [redacted], it had accessed [redacted].
Q Were you able to correlate the computer with what was on the server log?
A Taking in account there was a ten-minute difference in time.
Q You said ten to twelve minutes.
A Ten to twelve minutes.
MR. SMITH: May I approach, Your Honor?
THE COURT: Yes.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q I would like to show you what has been premarked as State's Exhibit 2 for identification purposes only at this point. Without telling us what is in that document, can you tell us what that document is?
A This document is a portion of the firewall log relating to the PC in question from October 19th.
Q Okay. And can you locate -- excuse me, is that the information or some of the information you printed up or did you print this information up from the firewall server?
A I did print this directly from the file that I had of the firewall.
Q That is after you correlated the IP address on a PC to this specific IP information address, correct?
A Yes.
Q Have you had a chance to go through that information?
A I really looked at this part of it this morning.
Q Okay. And to your knowledge, is that a fair and accurate copy of what you saw and what you printed out?
A Yes. It's a log from the firewall. It covers the times, 10:56 in the morning until about 11:00 o'clock in the morning. It's only a portion of the log.
Q Of the information that was pulled?
A Yes.
MR. SMITH: I would ask that this be entered as a full exhibit at this point, Your Honor.
MR. COCHEO: No objection.
THE COURT: Without objection, it's a full exhibit.
(State Exhibit 2 is marked into evidence)
MR. SMITH: I will publish this quickly, and just to get a gist of what the file is, I am sure the jury can look at it. A few portions of this I'm going to put up.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q This is basically what the logs look like, correct?
A Correct.
Q Now, I am going to scroll up to the top here. I notice there is this number, 10.2.19.252.
A Right before that number is SRC and that means the source and that is the source of the request. And it's showing that this particular request came from Mr. Napp's PC.
Q And this is information you pulled up, correct?
A Correct.
Q And some of the information you said you looked at correlated with the AOL e-mail and the Orbitz and the hair and such, correct?
A Yes.
Q I noticed in this stuff that was pulled up, there is information -- some of these websites also I believe caused you concern, concern of a sexual nature, is that correct?
A Yes, they did.
Q Specifically to what I am pointing at here, my understanding is this [redacted], specifically this website, again, was accessed to that PC in Mr. Napp's classroom, correct?
A Correct. If you go about two or three lines above that, it says October 19th and it's followed by a time stamp. This access was made on October 19th at 10:57. And you see the source, SRC. Again, it's 10.2.19.252. The SRC is what was being accessed, that is the website that was being accessed.
Q Absent the information that was sent, what does that mean?
A I'm not familiar with all those fields. They have things to do with the duration, how long did it take the website to respond, how many bytes were sent to the website? How many bytes were received? That is technical information as to how it was done. Yes. More like that.
Q And this was the website that was accessed from the IP address, it was accessed from and the time approximately when it was accessed, correct?
A And that is the time on the server or the firewall.
Q You testified it would be different than the PC.
A Ten or twelve minutes.
Q This entire area here would cover approximately how long?
A I believe it covers about five minutes, four to five minutes.
Q And my understanding, you actually saw more information on this, correct?
A I did go through the entire log looking for questionable sites.
Q And to go back just to correlate somewhat the actual PC, I see there was a site accessed from the same IP source to the [redacted] page, which is the same page accessed clearly on the PC, correct?
A Yes.
Q Was this PC located, the actual PC located in
A The PC was in
Q Was the server located in
A Yes, it was.
Q Clearly, there was a question on whether there are filters on the school computers?
A Correct.
Q Does the
A We do content filtering. It's not typically on the PC, but it's on a server, in our case it was on the firewall server.
Q At the time of this incident, October 19th, 2004, did you have an opportunity to look at the filtering system in place to block out suspect images?
A Yes. Mainly because I was concerned how could some of these sites be accessed without being denied. What I did find is our filtering, content filtering software had not been updated correctly.
Q They were able to access unfortunately all the computers, correct?
A Yes.
Q Are you familiar with some type of virus protection program that the school system runs?
A Yes.
Q Specifically, did you determine whether or not the virus has infected the computers?
A We do run --
MR. COCHEO: Objection, State v. Frye.
THE COURT: So a hearing on what issue?
MR. COCHEO: The exact issue, expertise would be admissible. He hasn't laid the proper foundation.
THE COURT: For this witness' expertise?
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
THE COURT: Would you like him to go into that?
MR. SMITH: I think I have laid the expertise based on his background, twenty years experience and the like.
THE COURT: He did it when he first took the stand. I don't find that sufficient, Mr. Cocheo. It sounded like -- we could hear it back.
MR. COCHEO: I said the
THE COURT: Are you saying the scientific information isn't reliable, or are you saying the witness isn't qualified?
MR. COCHEO: It hasn't been established that other experts in the field have accepted this as a proper form of expertise, expert testimony.
MR. SMITH: To narrow it, I don't know what he is objecting to. My question was whether there was software on it, not how it works.
THE COURT: Back up, what was your question? Let's go back.
MR. SMITH: I believe it is, is there virus protection software installed on the computers in the school?
THE COURT: Do you have an objection to that?
MR. COCHEO: Not to that.
THE COURT: You can answer that question.
THE WITNESS: Yes, there is.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q And I believe you stated that it was not on the individual PCs necessarily, but on the servers.
A Virus protection goes on all the individual PCs. Content filtering is done from the server firewalls.
Q And what type of virus protection were on the various PCs?
A We were running this product from Computer Associates called Inoculate IT.
Q You have access to that information, correct, whether if on the PC and such, correct?
A Yes.
Q To your knowledge, was the PC in question, Mr. Napp's PC, to your knowledge at the time infected with any viruses?
A Not to my knowledge.
Q Okay. And as a person involved in the computer field, do you know o f viruses that would allow a computer to be infected and to cause those computers to access random websites against the user's wishes?
A I haven't seen anything like that, nor have I heard of anything like that.
MR. SMITH: No further questions. Thank you.
MR. COCHEO: May I approach the bench, please.
THE COURT: Yes.
(Conference at bench)
THE COURT: Before we have cross examination of this witness, we are going to break for lunch. You will have a little bit of a longer lunch break, fifteen minutes extra. Don't discuss the case with anyone, and I would like to start promptly at 2:00 o'clock with this witness for cross examination. Obviously, don't discuss the case with anyone. Have a nice lunch.
(Luncheon recess taken)
'
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Good afternoon, sir. I will probably sit most of the time, please forgive me.
A That's okay.
Q You mentioned in your testimony today that you have content filtering on your computer, your firewall wasn't updated, is that correct?
A That is correct. It had not been updated, I would say, for a few weeks.
Q Can you tell me why that happened, why it hadn't been updated?
A The update on that particular firewall was supposedly done automatically every night, somewhere around midnight. For some reason, it began failing. There was a problem with activating the license for that when we renewed in, I believe some time late September. And so when we went out to do the update, the company which was Symantec was saying no, you are not authorized to update.
Q Can you tell me how often it is normally updated?
A That firewall was updated every twenty-four hours.
Q If there were two virus protections -- is there a virus protection on the computer?
A On the computer in question, yes, the Computer Associates' Inoculate IT.
Q Excuse me?
A The product was called Inoculate IT.
Q Thank you very much. Can you tell me what the difference between adware, spyware, parasites and viruses are?
A I can define some of them, yes.
THE COURT: That is kind of compound. Could you ask specifically one at a time.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Start with adware please.
A I define adware as being something that gets installed in your computer, quite often not to your knowledge, and can track what you are doing, and it tracks what you are doing so that it can actually allow some other, some outside site to customize ads for you.
Q And what about spyware?
A Spyware is likely the same, it tracks what you are doing. In some cases, it tries to pick up personal information about maybe passwords, user IDs, things like that.
Q Parasites?
A I really can't identify, give you a definition for that.
Q What about viruses?
A Viruses are pieces of software, programs or so on that get into your computer by e-mail, maybe from an infected file, from another PC, something like that and do malicious things to the PC. maybe they destroy files, maybe they add files to your computer, maybe they delete files. Some of them are just annoyances. Maybe they access your address book in e-mail and just send junk mail to everybody there.
Q Was there any protection from these things on the computer?
A The Inoculate IT would have protected against --. No. Let me rephrase that. As far as viruses go, yes, there was protection. The Computer Associates' Inoculate IT would have prevented viruses from entering the machine via diskette from home or something like that. In addition, we had another anti-virus program for e-mail, it was from Trend Micro. The name was Scan Mail. And every piece of mail that came into the system would be checked for viruses. If there was a virus there, the mail would be deleted, or the virus would be deleted.
Q Thank you. Were any of the items mentioned, adware, spyware or parasites or viruses updated on or before October 19th?
A Pardon me, I didn't hear the question.
Q Were any of the adware, spyware, parasite and viruses updated on or before October 19th?
A Anti-virus updates, Inoculate IT was updated I want to say weekly. It would have been updated no later than October 12th, the week before that and probably sometimes towards the middle of the week. Trend Microscan Mail, that was updated nightly.
Q I may have misspoken. My question is were any of these items uploaded, not updated, uploaded?
A You mean just installed?
Q I believe, excuse me one moment.
(Pause)
Q Let me rephrase the question. Was anything added to the computer, adware, spyware, parasites or viruses or any of those on the computer?
A Are you asking was anything added?
Q Yes.
A No. There was no new software or protection in those areas added prior -- the week prior to October 19th.
Q Excuse me one moment please.
(Pause)
Q Were any of these viruses on the computer?
A I don't know of any viruses that were on the computer nor do I know if any adware or spyware was on the computer.
Q Does spyware and adware generate pornography?
A Not to the best of my knowledge.
Q Did you notice any access to the dating sites on the computer on or before October 19th?
A When I investigated the computer and firewall logs all I did was look on the October 19th date.
MR. COCHEO: Excuse me one moment, Your Honor.
(Pause)
Q Was there any adware, spyware or virus found on the computer?
A I did not find any of that, although I did not look for adware or spyware.
Q Thank you. It seems like we are focusing on, only on October 19th. Did you notice what happened before or after the 19th?
A No, I did not.
Q Do you understand what a pop-up does?
A I understand what a pop-up is.
Q You understand what it does though?
A What it does, usually it is in the form of an advertisement or something that gets you to do something, maybe to go to a website.
Q Is it possible for a pop-up to have misleading categories to trick users on clicking onto it?
A I would suspect that's possible.
Q Is it possible to have pornography references in a temporary Internet file in cache?
A I don't know.
Q Is it possible to click on an innocent link to lead you to a porn site?
A That would be possible.
MR. SMITH: Could we approach for one second.
(Conference at the bench)
THE COURT: You can continue, Mr. Cocheo.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Is it possible to click on an innocent link that can take you to a porn site?
A The names of sites don't need to bear any relationship to their content. Something that did appear innocent could be a porn site.
Q Thank you. Is it possible to be in an endless loop of pornography?
A I've never seen that, so I would have to say probably not.
Q Is there any way Julie Amero could have accessed these files unintentionally?
MR. SMITH: Objection, calls for the ultimate issue of fact.
THE COURT: How is this witness going to answer that question?
MR. COCHEO: Excuse me?
THE COURT: The issue of intent is not something that would be with in the witness' --
MR. COCHEO: If I may.
THE COURT: I think you asked the question could there be an inadvertent link to pornography, and I think the witness said that's possible.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you, Your Honor. I withdraw my question.
THE COURT: Thank you.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Does spyware and adware generate pornography?
A I'm not aware that they do.
MR. COCHEO: If I may approach the witness, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Yes.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING :
Q Mr. Hartz, I would just like to show you this and ask you if somebody clicked onto this site, could it lead them to a pornography site?
MR. SMITH: Objection, speculative.
THE COURT: First of all, this is a document that is for identification. There is a lack of foundation. And I suppose the answer -- the truth is it's speculative, unless this witness is aware of it, I suppose he can answer the question. If you don't know, you don't know.
MR. SMITH: I also would object on foundation.
THE COURT: My problem is there is no foundation. I don't know what that document is and if you are trying to --
MR. COCHEO: If you could approach the bench with me.
MR. SMITH: Sure.
(Conference at bench)
THE COURT: It's for identification, you're not trying to put it in as a full exhibit.
(Conference at bench continues)
THE COURT: I am sustaining objection to that document. You don't have to answer that question.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you, Your Honor. Your Honor, if I may, I understand now this is a website that my client went to.
MR. SMITH: Judge, objection, move to strike. If Counsel is going to testify, he can take the stand.
THE COURT: You have a witness to testify to that website at some point.
MR. COCHEO Yes.
THE COURT: I'm not sure where you're going.
MR. COCHEO: Well, I'll wait until she gets on the witness stand.
THE COURT: You will still have the ability if it is relevant at the time to talk about that.
MR. COCHEO: Yes. Thank you, Your Honor.
THE COURT: But not with this witness.
MR. COCHEO: Nothing further.
THE COURT: Redirect.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q Mr. Hartz, I'm going to go over a couple of issues that I believe the defense spoke on. You had a filter to filter out specifically pornographic material, correct?
A And inappropriate websites which include porn, violence, hate crimes and those types of sites.
Q That was to have been automatically updated on a specific time frame?
A Every night at 2:00 a. m.
Q I believe you said there was an issue with the updating of that, is that correct?
A Yes.
Q If I heard you right, that issue was basically a licensing issue?
A We did not activate the license in September, so there had been several weeks when it had not been updated.
Q Were you aware of that not being updated?
A Not until this incident.
Q And it was obviously brought to your attention and it was corrected after the fact?
A Correct.
Q What were the various virus programs you had on there?
A Specifically Inoculate IT, that was the virus program that was on our servers and also on the individual PCs.
Q And that was updated how often?
A I want to say weekly. It was updated every week.
Q Okay. So you didn't have an issue with the license renewal, that was separate, correct?
A Yes.
Q To your knowledge, at the time of this incident you were not, and you didn't learn subsequently or at the time you did not know of -- there was no viruses, adware or spyware or viruses I think you said on that computer in question, correct?
A To the best of my knowledge, there was none of that on the PC.
Q And we are talking obviously about Mr. Napp's PC, the one in question here.
A Correct.
MR. SMITH: No further questions. Thank you.
THE COURT: Recross?
MR. COCHEO: Please.
RECROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Mr. Hartz, when did you realize that these pornographic websites were still on the computer?
A Days after the incident. I'm sorry, I don't quite understand the question.
Q Did you realize that these pornographic websites were still on the computer days after the incident?
A In a temporary Internet file and so on, yes.
Q Any reason the computer wasn't removed?
A To the best of my recollection, it was removed from the classroom I believe on the 20th, maybe not until the 21st and brought down to Mr. Fain's office for subsequent pickup by the police.
MR. COCHEO: Nothing further, Your Honor. Thank you.
FURTHER REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q Mr. Hartz, you don't know when that computer was picked up, do you?
A As indicated, when it was picked up by the police, no.
Q It could have been at any point, you just don't know when it was taken out of the classroom?
A It was taken out of the classroom the week, between the 20th and I would say the 22nd. It was definitely removed from the classroom up to Mr. Fain's office.
Q How do you know that?
A Because I did it and I got Mr. Napp another PC.
Q You took that computer out?
A Just to put it down in the principal's office because we were a w are that somebody might want to look at it.
Q Thank you. One more question. But you don't know when the police picked it up and removed it?
A No, I don't know that.
MR. SMITH: Thank you.
THE COURT: Anything further?
MR. COCHEO: May I have a moment, Your Honor.
THE COURT : Yes.
FURTHER RECROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Mr. Hartz ; can you tell me why the computer was not removed on the 20th?
A If it was not removed on the 20th, it was because I didn't think of it or no one requested that I remove it.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you very much.
MR. SMITH: I have another question based on that. Sorry, Judge.
THE COURT: All right.
FURTHER REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q When the computer is removed and a new computer is brought in, does the IP address change?
A Yes. Because the new computer would not have an IP address at this point in time.
Q If the person were to access the Internet through a new computer, the IP, would the I P address be the same as the old computer?
A Probably not.
Q Do you know what the new IP address is?
A No, I do not.
MR. SMITH: Thank you. No further questions.
MR. COCHEO: No further questions. Thank you.
MR. SMITH: The state calls Officer Michael Belair.
MICHAEL BELAIR, having been called as a witness on behalf of the state, after having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
THE COURT: Mr. Smith?
MR. SMITH: Thank you.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q Mr. Belair, how are you currently employed?
A I'm a sergeant with the Norwich Police Department.
Q How long have you been employed with the Norwich Police Department?
A Just over thirteen years.
Q I will ask you a few questions. I request that you keep your voice up and when you answer you direct your responses to the jury.
A Yes, sir.
Q Would it be fair to say you were an officer with the Norwich Police Department in October of 2004?
A Yes, sir.
Q Do you recall being assigned to investigate a case out of
A Yes.
Q And how did that investigation initiate to the best of your knowledge?
A I spoke with Sergeant Deveny who assigned me to meet with Dr. Frechette who was then the superintendent of Norwich Public Schools. So I went up and met with him at the old John Mason building on
Q That a complaint had been made, correct?
A Yes.
Q Based on that, did you go to the middle school?
A The next day, I believe it was the 27th, I went to the Middle school.
Q When you got to the middle school, what did you do?
A First I spoke with Scott Fain, the principal of the Kelly Middle School, and he advised me what he knew about the complaint. There was a school computer there that I had to seize. So I seized that computer before I left the school.
Q On or about the 27th of October?
A Yes.
Q At this point, did the computer leave the school on October 27th?
A Yes. I took the computer as evidence. I brought it down to the police department. I logged it as evidence and put it in our evidence room.
Q Okay. During the course of your investigation, did you speak with any adult in relation to this incident?
A Only Mr. Fain, Bob Hartz and Dr. Frechette, I believe.
Q Okay. During the course of your investigation, did you at some point focus in on some minor individuals?
A Yes.
Q Did you talk to several of these minor individuals, these kids?
A Yes, sir.
Q Okay. Were you able to ascertain whether these minors were under the age of sixteen at the time this incident allegedly happened?
A Yes, they were. I believe they were all eleven or twelve.
Q They were all clearly minors, under age?
A Yes.
Q At some point when you were speaking not to the -- when you spoke to the children concerning the incident, without giving us the substance of what they said, did anything alert you that something might have happened with regard to them viewing the computer?
A I don't understand.
Q Without telling us exactly what they told you, when you spoke to these children, did it cause an alarm that something might have occurred where they saw something on the computer?
A They each told me they had seen something inappropriate on the computer.
Q Based on that and the conversations you had with the various adults involved in the school system, you seized the computer you said, correct?
A Yes, sir.
Q At any point, did you learn any information as to what the various sites would be that this computer had allegedly gone to?
A The first thing I went to school, Dr. Frechette provided me with a report by Bob Hartz who was the school information systems manager. On that report it listed different websites that had been accessed by this computer at the
A Yes.
Q Okay. Based on that information, did you during the course of your interrogation visit these various websites?
A I selected a couple of websites that I saw on these pages here and I went to a second computer, and I entered those websites, the addresses of the websites into that computer and pulled up the websites.
Q Okay. And when you say you entered the various websites, did you go to the websites specifically as Orbitz.com or AOL.com
A No.
Q You visited other websites?
A Yes.
Q What drew your attention initially to those other websites?
A I don't recall if they had been pointed out to me by Dr. Frechette or Mr. Hartz or just noticed it on the listing that they appeared to be pornographic websites and they drew my attention.
Q At some point, you accessed these various websites that were given to you on these other reports?
A Yes.
Q And what did you see when you accessed these websites?
A That they were pornographic in nature.
Q What specifically do you mean by that?
A Naked females, naked males.
Q Were they engaging, any of them engaging in any activities that you recall?
A I can't recall what specific conduct they were engaged in.
Q Based on the evidence you gathered from the children, the adults and also viewing the actual websites that were given to you, at that point did you write a report up?
A Yes, sir.
Q And all these incidents happened in
A Correct, yes, they did.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Officer Belair, did you see anybody operating that computer and viewing those websites?
A No, I did not.
THE COURT: Any further questions?
MR. COCHEO: No further questions.
MR. SMITH: We have a witness that is originally scheduled for tomorrow, but because of the circumstances, he needs to come in, here today. He will be here in fifteen minutes, and we would ask for a short recess.
MR. COCHEO: No objection.
THE COURT: We'll have a ten-minute recess.
(Recess taken)
(Jury returns)
THE COURT: Good afternoon again. Mr. Smith?
MR. SMITH: At this point, the state would call [Student 1].
[Student 1], having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:.
Q I will ask you a few questions. I will ask you to speak up because that microphone doesn't amplify, it's not even on. Answer my question if you do feel comfortable, and I ask you to talk to the jury. How old are you right now?
A I'm fifteen.
Q Do you live in
A Yes, I do.
Q How long have you lived in
A My whole life.
Q You were born and raised here?
A Yes.
Q Gone to school in
A Yes.
Q Where do you go to school right now?
A
Q Prior to this at some point, did you go to
A Yes.
Q How old are you now?
A Fifteen.
Q And when you were in
A Yes.
Q Were you in
A Yes, I was.
Q And did you have a teacher back then named Mr. Napp?
A Yes.
Q What did Mr. Napp teach?
A Language arts.
Q Were you taking language arts from him?
A Yes.
Q Do you recall a date, about October 19th or somewhere around there where you were in school in Mr. Napp's class, but he had a substitute teacher?
A Yes.
Q What caused you to remember that day specifically?
A I remember that day because a teacher was looking at pornographic --
Q I will stop you at this point now. Let me go back a little bit.
A Okay.
Q On that day, you were a student in the class, correct?
A Correct.
Q In relation to the teacher's desk --
A Uh-huh.
Q -- where did you sit?
A I sat pretty much diagonal from it, about five, six feet away.
Q From her desk?
A From the computer.
Q From the computer?
A From the computer.
Q Could you see the computer from where you were?
A At an angle, yes, a little bit.
Q But not the whole screen?
A No.
Q You were there in the morning time period to the best of your recollection?
A Yes.
Q On that day, let me ask you this. Do you recall what the substitute teacher looked like from that day?
A No, I do not.
Q If I ask you to look around, you would not be able to identify her?
A I wouldn't be.
Q Do you know if it was a woman or a man?
A It was a woman.
Q You don't know what that person looked like, correct?
A You understand, it was two years ago.
Q So on the day in question, on or about October 19th, 2004, a substitute is there and you are sitting at a desk, correct?
A Yes.
Q at some point, do you notice the substitute teacher at the computer?
A Yes, I do.
Q And what do you notice her doing? Let me ask you this way, how much was she at the computer?
A The whole time pretty much.
Q The whole class?
A The whole class.
Q About an hour, is that correct?
A I think it was forty- five minutes.
Q A class period?
A Yes.
Q And she was at the computer, what was she doing at the computer, do you recall?
A She was on the websites scrolling up and down, that is all I can recall.
Q And were you able to see any of the websites she was accessing?
A I did not see the websites that she was on, like the names of them.
Q Did you see anything on the computer that drew your attention?
A I saw women on the computer.
Q And when you say women on the computer, what do you mean by that?
A Just posing and stuff and she would keep scrolling up and down.
Q She was looking at these women posing on the computer?
A Yes.
Q At any point while she was looking at these - and you are saying she is scrolling to look at the picture, correct?
A Correct.
Q Scrolling meaning moving the picture up and down on the page, correct?
A Yes.
Q Just for the record. How often or how long did you see her scrolling through the various websites?
A Not very long. I only looked real quick and I could see her scrolling and I just looked away.
Q At this point, before you look, did you know what she was doing?
A No, I didn't know.
Q During that time frame, did you see any other kids go up and use the computer?
A No, I did not.
Q To your knowledge -- and you were about three to five feet away you said?
A Yes, five to six.
Q Five to six feet, I apologize. Did any of the students in the class go up and use that computer?
A No. I think I was the only one in the class at the time. Other students went to different classes to finish up work that they missed.
Q So at the time you were the only person in the class and you could see she was the only one using the computer?
A Correct.
Q At other points in the class, there were other kids in the classroom?
A Only at the beginning and then they asked her to leave and they left.
Q At any point, did any other kids go up there and access the computer while they were in the class?
A No.
Q Okay. You said there were various women, Correct, on the screen that you saw?
A Yes, two women.
Q Two women?
A Yes.
MR. SMITH: No further questions. Thank you.
THE COURT: Cross examination, Mr. Cocheo.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Good afternoon,
A Good afternoon.
Q Do you have a lot of friends in that class you were in?
A I had one good friend.
Q About how many kids were there in that class, roughly?
A I do not recall.
Q How long had you been in that class?
A Probably that day.
Q Just that one day? How long was that class that one day? No. How long have you been in that language arts class?
A The whole school year.
Q You said you only had one friend out of those students?
A Yes, one close good friend.
Q Did you discuss this case with other students?
A Just, not really, kind of just talked about the questions that the principal asked us.
Q The principal was involved in this, you spoke to the principal, is that correct?
A Yes.
Q Were other students present, too?
A No.
Q Is your signature on this statement right here?
A Yes, it is.
Q Thank you. Is that your writing above it?
A No, it's not.
Q So you didn't write this statement, right?
A No.
Q Who wrote this statement, if you know?
A The police officer.
Q Okay. You don't recall his name by any chance, do you?
A No, I do not.
Q How long did you spend with the police officer?
A Probably five minutes. Not very long.
Q Did you tell him or did he suggest things to you?
A I told him the story.
Q But this is not your writing on this statement, correct?
A Correct.
MR. COCHEO: I would offer that as a defense exhibit.
MR. SMITH: A defense exhibit, not a full exhibit?
THE COURT: Are you saying, Mr. Cocheo, you want to enter it as evidence?
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
THE COURT: As a full exhibit. You're asking for this to be a full exhibit, Mr. Cocheo?
MR. COCHEO: May I approach a moment, Your Honor?
(Pause)
MR. COCHEO: On second thought, I'm asking far it to be marked for Identification, Your Honor.
THE COURT: It will be marked for Identification only.
MR. COCHEO: Nothing further, Your Honor.
THE COURT: You are all done. Thank you so much for coming.
MR. SMITH: Based on discussions previously, I have no further witnesses for today.
THE COURT: What is happening is you are going to be let go early today, and tomorrow the state will finish presenting its case, and I believe the defense will begin presenting its case. But depending on the timing, I've been asked to cover for another judge in
(Jury excused)
THE COURT: Anything further before we adjourn?
MR. SMITH: No, Your Honor.
MR. COCHEO: No, Your Honor.
THE COURT: We will adjourn for the day.
THE COURT: Good morning. Any preliminary issues before we bring out the jury?
MR. COCHEO: I have an objection, Your Honor, to the size of the photos that the prosecution intends to show the jury. My claim is that it will be highly prejudicial to the jury to see these large photos of these sexually explicit allegations on the screen.
MR. SMITH: Clearly, it will be prejudicial, that is the whole point of showing the pictures, although it is not excessively prejudicial. I think it's informative to the jury. I don't think they are highly large size. They are clearly not excessively large. It is easier for the jury to see, and I think the state is allowed to present its evidence as it sees fit to communicate to the jury.
THE COURT: I will overrule your objection, Mr. Cocheo. It's an element of the crimes charged and the state has a right to its proof. I believe it's going to be through the overhead projector.
MR. SMITH: It will come through the computer, through the projector up across the courtroom away from the jurors, and it's large enough so they will be able to see it. But well below --. I do not believe it will be excessively large.
THE COURT: I will overrule your objection right now, but if it appears to be an excessively large picture, you can again, we will take it up at that time.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you, Your Honor.
THE COURT: At this point, I believe the state has a right to present it to the jury. Any other matters?
MR. SMITH: No, Your Honor
(Jury enters)
THE COURT: Good morning, everyone. The state will proceed with the witnesses, and we'll try to go through as much as we can by 1:00 o'clock, at which time you will be released for the day to start again tomorrow morning.
MR. SMITH: Mark Lounsbury.
MARK LOUNSBURY, having been called as a witness on behalf of the state, after having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q Mr. Lounsbury, I will ask you a few questions. I will ask you to speak up. That microphone doesn't amplify, it's not even on today. When you make a response, I will ask you to direct it to the jury. How are you currently employed?
A I'm employed with the Norwich Police Department. I work in the detective division. I am a crime prevention officer, the computer crimes officer.
Q It kind of leads to the question, you are engaged in investigating computer crimes specifically?
A Yes, sir.
Q And part of your job duties, does it entail investigating computer crimes of a pornographic nature?
A I investigate crimes of a pornographic nature, yes, sir.
Q Computer crimes specifically of a pornographic nature?
A Yes.
Q How long have you been a police officer?
A Almost eighteen years now.
Q How long have you been involved in the investigation of computer crimes?
A Approximately seven years.
Q And do you have any training and experience specifically in investigating computer crimes?
A Yes, I do.
Q Let me draw your attention to a specific computer in question that was allegedly used at
A Yes, I am.
Q And have you had an opportunity to look at that computer?
4 Yes, I have.
Q And where did you physically get that computer from?
A That computer was stored in our department's evidence storage. I retrieved it from the evidence officer, Sergeant Mollis, who maintains custody of the evidence.
Q And you were able to identify that computer as the computer that was used at the
A Yes, I was.
Q When you retrieved that computer, did you do anything physically to that computer to get it ready to examine?
A Yes. I had to replace the floppy drive.
Q And just quickly, how did you do that?
A You open the case up. There are two cables. There is a power cable and a data cable. The old floppy drive wasn't working, so I removed those cables. I took a new floppy drive and powered it up and attached a data cable.
Q Approximately how long had that computer been in storage prior to your accessing it?
A Over two years.
Q And had that computer been plugged in to your knowledge or powered up in any way in that time frame?
A No, sir.
Q So this is the first access that you know of since that computer was taken in custody from the
A The entire computer, yes.
Q Okay. And prior to that, had you specifically had any access with this computer?
A Yes. With the computer I had.
Q Okay. And prior to this last examination you did, what access did you have with this computer?
A I had to provide the defense with originally the -- the order was to provide them with the evidence which would have been the computer or hard drive itself. And in order to do that, I had to create a copy of the hard drive, which has all the information which is located inside the original computer. So the hard drive was removed from the computer. It was placed in a sterile environment, which is another computer with its own operating system, no other software installed. I obtained a new hard drive from the defense representative and made a copy of that drive so that they could have the evidence in that fashion.
Q Other than that access, to your knowledge has that hard drive on the computer in question been accessed?
A No, sir.
Q Prior to you accessing it to gather information for this case?
A No, sir.
Q At some point, you had this computer powered up, correct?
A Yes.
Q And you were in the process of conducting a forensic examination of the hard drive, is that correct?
A Yes, sir.
Q Could you tell the jury what you did in order to begin this investigation.
A I utilized a program known as Computer Cop Pro. It's an examination software. What it does is it examines the hard drive for stuff that I tell it to look for. In this case, I told it to look for things that are associated with the Internet and web pages. So pictures that are commonly used are known as GIFs and JPGs and variations of JPGs. Also, I instructed it to search for certain types of words, and again, in the Internet there is not your words as we know them there, it's HTML, which is a language. HTML, rich text format, TXT's, and I told it to search specifically for them, and then there were specific words that are utilized that give you the most information with that group of words looking for pornographic-type stuff.
Q And once you began that, did you actually begin your forensic examination, did you actually do this?
A Yes.
Q And specifically, how did you actually do the forensic examination?
A The software is on a CD, it runs off the CD. Once I tell it what to look for, I have to tell it where to look, and I told it to look at the hard drive on that computer. The program runs through and looks for all that information, and when it's done it gives me a complete report, it gives me an audit trail and gives me the evidence it located.
Q And did you actually locate any information on this computer?
A Yes, I did.
Q And what type of information - without going into specifics, what type of information did you locate on this computer?
A In the picture search, there was a number of pictures in the form of JPGs and GIFs which are from web pages. Also, in the word search related to language of the web, there were a number of web page html documents that included the words I was searching for related to pornography.
Q And the words are related to pornography, correct?
A Yes.
Q And once -- Did you find any images that you considered of evidence?
A Yes.
Q What did you do once you found this information?
A The program again allows me to view the evidence, the stuff it found, and then if it is of value, say it's pornography or related to pornography, the software gives me the option to save it. And the reason I had to change the floppy drive on the computer is because it saves it to the floppy drive.
Q Did you, in fact, save that information off the hard drive from the computer in question on to a floppy?
A Yes, I did.
Q What did you do then?
A Upon completion of the examination, there is an associated program that is located on my computer which is a Case Manager program. I take the floppy -- two floppies were needed in this case and the information is then inputted to the Case Manager on my computer. From the Case Manager, I can then produce reports, export the information, create CDs to share.
Q And did you do that?
A Yes, I did.
Q And then what happened next?
A That was pretty much about it.
Q Did you actually transfer information over to that examination results on the computer.
Q Once that was done -- Let me make sure I've got this -- Once that was done, did you provide that information in any hard form copy?
A Yes, I did.
Q How did you do that?
A I printed out the report -- there was a lot of information, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages of stuff. I printed up a report. I printed out the websites, the web pages that were identified as being visited. It gives a complete history, and I printed out the suspect images, and I printed out the suspect html information, web page information.
Q Did you print this out on the hard copy, meaning a paper copy?
A Yes.
Q Did you also download any of the images or transfer any images in a digital form?
A Again, I exported the case, and then once I exported the case outside of the software, I then made a copy of the case on a CD.
Q On a CD-ROM?
A Yes.
MR. SMITH: May I approach the witness, Your Honor?
THE COURT: Yes.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q I'm going to show you what has been premarked as State's Exhibit Number 4 for Identification purposes, and also State's Exhibit 5 for Identification purposes. Without telling us what is in those various exhibits, can you please tell us what they are.
A This is a hard copy of the case search. It includes the cover, it gives the information of what I searched for and what was sent. It also includes the log.
Q It's not telling you what's in it?
A This is the hard copy, and this is a copy of the export.
Q That is a digital copy of the export?
A Yes.
Q Have you had a chance to go over that information?
A Briefly, yes.
Q And that is information -- you provided that information, as a matter of fact, to the state's attorney's office, correct?
A Yes.
Q To your knowledge, is the information on the paper hard copy and also the digital copy an exact copy of what was on the hard drive of the computer from
A Yes, sir.
MR. SMITH: At this point, we would ask that the two exhibits be admitted as full exhibits.
THE COURT: Mr. Cocheo?
MR. COCHEO: No objection.
THE COURT: Without objection, they will both be full exhibits.
(Whereupon State's Exhibits 4 and 5 are marked as full exhibits)
MR. SMITH: At this point, I ask for permission to publish, not necessarily all, but some of the images in the information to the jury.
THE COURT: Any objection?
MR. COCHEO: Well, my objection stands, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Your Original objection?
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
THE COURT: That was overruled. Yes. You may publish. You don't need to leave them up.
MR. SMITH: I will not, Your Honor.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q I am showing you on the screen that is being projected right now the image from the computer. This is for the record, obviously. There is a window that has, and one of the indications are files currently on the CD. Is that correct?
A Yes, sir.
Q And just below that I believe there is a file that is still on there, could you please read that file, the name of that file.
A The folder is
Q And that number correlates to what?
A The case investigation.
Q Concerning specifically information provided or taken off of the computer, correct?
A Yes.
Q The computer in question I should say.
A The case file folder.
(Shown on screen)
Q These are some of the images taken from that computer, correct?
A Yes, sir.
Q And what I'm going to do, I'm going to put the images up, a few of the images, I'm just going to ask you if the images that are being portrayed here for the jury are the images you took directly off of that computer that was in use in question. Okay?
A Yes.
Q Okay. Is this one of the images that was taken off of the computer in question?
A Yes.
Q Is this one of the images that was taken off the computer in question?
A Yes.
Q Is this one of the images that was taken off the computer in question?
A Yes.
Q Is this one of the images that was taken off the computer in question?
A Yes.
Q Is this the image that was taken off the computer in question?
A Yes.
Q Is this the image that was taken off the computer in question?
A Yes.
Q Are these two of the images that were taken off the computer in question?
A Yes.
Q Is this an image, two images taken off the computer in question?
A Yes.
Q The image was taken off the computer in question?
A Yes.
Q An image taken off the computer in question?
A Yes.
Q I believe that is enough at this point. Now, in addition to the various images, were there actual web pages actually taken off the computer in question?
A Yes. That is the html document.
Q And those web pages, do you recall what they related to?
A I recall they were related to adult sexual nature. There were some sites related to pornography, et cetera.
Q Of an adult sexual nature?
A Yes.
Q Let me bring up a couple of those pages. This is one of the web pages that was stored on the computer from October 19th, 2004?
A Yes.
Q And obviously brought over to the digital form, correct?
A Yes.
Q This is a page specifically to adult sexual information, correct?
A Yes, sir.
Q I'm going to ask you, do you see that open space there with the red X on top?
A Yes.
Q I will ask you to keep this in mind as I ask this question. How are web pages put together?
A It's a bit complicated. You start with the html,
which is a language of web pages. You include a number of other things. The person who built the web page would include pictures, usually JPGs, GIFs. They can include animated JPG s and GIFs, and one of those was animated. Like when you take a stick figure and make it change a little bit on a piece of paper and flip through, it is animated. You add Javascript, which allows for a lot of other stuff including pop-ups, et cetera. And when it's all said and done, yon have your finished product, your web page.
Q In relation to this page we are looking at here, which is one of the adult websites, that blanked out area with the X there, what type of information, what type of things would be put into that blank spot?
A There would b e an image, a JPG,GIF-type pictures.
Q When you download the information, when you separate it, would the images that we showed and what you separated, separated from the actual web pages that we see shown here?
A What happened is the program specifically looks for the specific pictures and takes those separate from the page. What we are doing is reviewing the page, we are not reviewing the page built. But the pictures aren't there because you are blocking them. Two, you are not online, and that is the information that the person built into their web page. They updated, changed pictures, add more pictures.
Q The images that we just viewed, that you downloaded, those would be embedded in this or other web pages that you also downloaded?
A They would come from the web pages, yes.
Q Okay. And that is another page taken from that computer on the day in question?
A Yes.
Q This page also deals with sexual contents, Correct?
A Yes.
Q Without going through all of them, I believe you have several pages that you downloaded or transferred from your hard drive, correct?
A They were, yes.
Q And the several pages that you transferred over from the hard drive, Correct?
A They were, Yes.
Q And the several pages that you transferred over from the hard drive you got to obviously by putting in those code parameters, correct?
A Those were the word search parameters.
Q And for the record, I want to ask you for the word search parameters, specifically the words that you used to retain your parameters for pulling up not only the photographs but also the web pages.
A The word search parameter was specifically for the word search related to the text types. And the reason it is is because it pulls up the most objectionable material or sexually-related material, and the words are and I didn't make them up, are [redacted] and wet.
Q And you used those and those went through the computer to pull up the specific web pages, correct?
A Those words are used for the search so that while it searches through the pages, it seized those words in the pages and adds them to the evidence list.
Q Okay. Were you able to go through the report and correlate the times that those web pages were accessed and created on the computer originally?
A That information is included by the software. Software takes the date, time tag associated with the images and with the documents and includes that.
Q When you print up the report, is that time and date stamp made available on the printed hard copy?
A Yes.
Q I 'm going to pick a picture at random off the information that has already been admitted as a full exhibit.
MR. COCHEO: No objection.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q I will ask you to look at this and read out where on this repost it would indicate that the image was initially created?
A In the report, it shows the created date and time and it gives it for this particular image to be October 19th, 2004 at 10:11:32 a.m.
Q That is when that specific image was created?
A Yes.
Q Are there any other numbers on this page?
A Yes. There is modified and access times.
Q What does the modification number indicate?
A Modification number usually is associated with the website, server, picture on the server, when was that last modified. The last access time was when was this image last looked at.
Q And there is another number you have on there?
A There is an MD5 signature.
Q What's that?
A That tells you that the image has not been tampered with. It's a unique hexadecimal number which identifies the picture has not been changed in any way.
Q And that is information provided on all of the images that were downloaded directly from this computer in question?
A Yes.
Q I want to put this up, and I think the jury can see that. You indicated that the created date and time is the time that this image was initially created, or I should say placed on the hard drive, correct?
A Created on the local computer.
Q How would that image have been created on the local computer?
A What happens specifically with the browser Internet Explorer, it actually loads part of the web page onto a temporary folder. The reason it does that is to make surfing quicker. In the old days, the Internet was slow and it would download the pictures and allow stuff right to your hard drive. When you go back to the page, you don't have to go back to the web server and have to download everything again. That stuff is there and it just adds it to make the faster surfing.
Q You also spoke of the last modified date. This time is a little different, but that refers to the server. You are not talking about the server on the school system, are you?
A No, sir.
Q Are you talking about the server that could possibly be out of state or wherever these actual images are located before it's transferred?
A Yes. The server that is serving that web page.
MR. SMITH: No further questions, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Cross examination.
MR. COCHEO: I would request a very short recess, if I may. I need to consult with my
expert.
THE COURT: All right. Five minutes, because you had time for preparation before. I will ask you to leave. I would like to say we'll be a five minute recess. We are on time constraints. If the jury can go out for a five-minute break.
(Recess taken)
(Jury returns)
THE COURT: I will remind you that you are still under oath. Cross examination, Mr. Cocheo.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Detective, in your search, why didn't you examine the whole hard drive?
A The whole hard drive was examined.
Q It was examined?
A Yes.
Q Using a disk editor utility, did you examine the whole hard drive?
A The entire hard drive was searched under the parameters that are in my report. The entire hard drive was searched, based on those parameters with that particular software which is -- there is other software I can't use. It's not at my disposal.
Q Did you examine the hard drive for spyware, adware, viruses or parasites?
A No, I didn't.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you. Nothing further, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Any redirect?
REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q You said you did examine the whole hard drive with the software you were using.
A Yes.
Q When you used that software you were using to examine the hard drive, I believe you showed the photographs you showed on the digital hard copy you made, were those all of the images that were found when you examined it with your software?
A No.
Q This was a sampling of the images?
A Those images were of evidentiary value, the other ones weren't.
Q Now, if you go through the disk which showed some of the images and also on the hard copy, are there different images on the hard copy than on the digital copy?
A They are the same images.
Q And the images on the hard copy were the images you used to extract the information from the hard drive, Correct? Excuse me, I didn't say that correctly. The images on the paper hard copy are images you got by extracting the information off the hard drive with the soft w are you used, Correct?
A Yes.
Q And to your knowledge, does the software you used in any way change the information on the hard drive?
A
No, it doesn't.
MR. SMITH: Thank you.
THE COURT: Anything based on that?
RECROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Detective, what about the dates other than the 19th, the web site access?
MR. SMITH: Objection, beyond the scope.
THE COURT: What are you asking? Are you asking was there other pornography on other dates?
MR. COCHEO: Exactly, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Can you answer, if you know?
THE WITNESS: Yes. We went through, included in the report is a history of websites visited. The earliest was in 1999. There was a break, and then there was a continuation of website visits on through October 19th, all the way to October 26th was the last date. Going back prior to October 19th, I found no pornographic websites visited. On the 19th, there were a number of pornographic websites visited, then on the 20th, there were two instances of pornographic websites visited. Those two sites were two of the same sites visited on the 19th.
THE COURT: Thank you.
MR. COCHEO: Nothing further.
THE COURT: Anything further?
MR. SMITH: No further questions.
THE COURT: Thank you so much.
THE WITNESS: Thank you, Your Honor.
MR. SMITH: At this point, the state would call [Student 2]
[Student 2], of Norwich, Connecticut, having been called as a witness on behalf of the state, after having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
THE COURT: You may proceed.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q You said you are [redacted]
A Yes.
Q Did you have a name prior to that?
A Yes, [redacted]
Q I'll call you [redacted], because that's how I identified you earlier on. Okay.
A Yes.
Q How old are you currently?
A What?
Q How old are you?
A Fifteen.
Q I will ask you a few questions, and I will ask that you answer out loud. And if you can, if you can direct your answers to the jury.
A All right.
Q You're fifteen years old currently?
A Yes.
Q And you live in
A Yes.
Q And how long have you lived in
A My entire life.
Q Fifteen years?
A Yes.
Q Did you go to the
A Yes.
Q Did you attend
A Yes.
Q Okay. Were you a student at
A Yes, I was.
Q Let me draw your attention to October of 2004. Okay?
A Yes.
Q Do you remember a teacher at
A Yes.
Q How do you know Mr. Napp?
A He was my language arts teacher.
Q Okay. And were you a student of Mr. Napp's in October of 2004?
A Yes.
Q Do you recall on or about October 19th, 2004, you being in Mr. Napp's classroom and there being a substitute teacher?
A Yes.
Q Did anything occur, without telling us what it was, did anything occur on that date that caused you to remember that day specifically?
A Yes.
Q Okay. You said there was a substitute teacher, correct?
A Yes.
Q Do you remember if that substitute teacher was a male or female?
A She was a female.
Q If you had an opportunity to look around the room, do you think you might be able to identify that person?
A Not in the slightest.
Q I understand. It was a couple years ago.
Q Yes.
A Do you remember the incidences that happened on that day?
A Yes.
Q And you went to the room for class, correct?
A Yes.
Q Other kids in the classroom?
A Yes.
Q What happened? First off, let me ask you this, the substitute teacher when you were in the class, where was the substitute teacher?
A Up at the desk being at her computer.
Q The teacher's computer, correct?
A Yes.
Q When you say her, you're meaning the teacher's computer?
A Yes.
Q That would be Mr. Napp's computer that she was using?
A Yes.
Q Where were you sitting in the classroom?
Q From where you were sitting, could you see the computer?
A Not the monitor or anything, but yea, I could see.
Q You could see the physical computer?
A Yes.
Q But you could not see the monitor?
A No.
Q At any point, did you notice her getting up -- strike that. During the course of that class, it was a class period, correct?
A Yes.
Q Forty-five minutes?
A Fifty minutes.
Q Okay. What was the substitute teacher doing?
A She was just sitting at the computer. We all were working on projects for the class, and we didn't really, we just kind of kept to -- sat in our little groups and did our projects.
Q When you initially got there, did this substitute teacher indicate to you that you had to do a certain something?
A Yes.
Q Some class work, right?
A Yes.
Q Some type of class work. And after that did she interact with you anymore?
A No.
Q And where was she during the class period?
A Just up at the computer.
Q For the whole class period?
A Yes.
Q Were you able to see anything she was doing on the computer?
A No.
Q Okay. Now, during that whole class period, did you see any other kids go up to the computer and use the computer?
A No.
Q Did you see any kids have access to the computer?
A Not that exact computer. There are computers for the students, and there was one computer which is the teacher's.
Q To your knowledge during the course of that classroom, no other kids used the computer, correct?
A No other kids used the computer.
Q Did you see anything where another kid in your class, something happen with that other kid and the teacher?
A Yes.
Q What did you see? First off, who was that other kid?
A My friend [redacted].
Q What's his last name?
A [redacted]
Q What happened with [redacted]?
A He went up to the computer -- I just witnessed this from the back of the room -- he walked up to the computer.
Q The computer, which computer?
A The teacher's computer.
Q What happened?
A And he kind of looked over her shoulder to see what exactly she was looking at, and she shoved his face away.
Q Okay. And then what happened after that?
A He kind of like ran to the back of the room and was a little quiet. He's normally a talkative kid, but he was quiet for the rest of the class.
Q You never actually saw what was on the computer, did you?
A No.
Q Later on in the class, were there any rumors floating around the school as to what was going on in that class?
A
Yes.
Q Were these rumors related to what was being viewed by the teacher?
A Yes.
Q Did these rumors start on the same day as the incident happened?
A Yes.
MR. COCHEO: Objection, Your Honor, hearsay.
MR. SMITH : I'm not asking for the substance of the rumors.
THE COURT: The question was any rumors started, that would mean who heard these rumors?
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: I will allow it. Overruled. Go ahead.
MR. SMITH: No further questions. Thank you.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q So you were sitting in an area way back in the room,
correct?
A Yes.
Q And you could not see the monitor, what the teacher was viewing.
A No.
MR. COCHEO: No further questions, Your Honor.
MR. SMITH: No further questions.
THE COURT: Thank you for coming in. You are all set.
[Student 3] of Norwich, Connecticut, having been called as a witness on behalf of the state, after having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q How old are you?
A I'm fourteen.
Q And I am going to ask you a few questions. I'm going to ask you to speak up, which you don't have a problem with.
A Yes.
Q I will ask you to direct this information to the jury.
A Yes.
Q What is your date of birth, by the way?
A May 30th, 1992.
Q And are you from
A No. I was born in
Q
A Yes.
Q At some point, you moved to
A Yes.
Q How old were you when you moved here?
A Six.
Q Did you ever go to school in the Norwich Public
School system?
A Yes.
Q Where do you go to school now?
A I go to NFA.
Q Okay. And did you go to
A Yes.
Q How old were you then?
A I was twelve. Yes, twelve.
Q Twelve years old?
A Yes.
Q When you were a student there, do you remember a teacher named Mr. Napp?
A Yes.
Q How do you know Mr. Napp?
A I remember him from my English class, and he was my basketball coach last year.
Q Last year also?
A Yes.
Q Okay. Now, when you were a student --. You said you were a student, correct?
A Yes.
Q In the
A Yes.
Q And do you remember being a student of his in October of 2004?
A Yes.
Q Do you remember at some point there being a substitute teacher on or about October 19th of 2004?
A Yes, I don't know if that is the date, but it was a long time ago, but I remember a substitute.
Q In October of 2004?
A Yes.
Q And do you remember if it was a female substitute teacher or a male substitute teacher?
A Female.
Q If I ask you to look around the courtroom to see if you could identify her, could you tell me the color of her shirt, if you can see her?
A White.
Q Could you point at her, please?
A Her. (Indicating)
MR. SMITH: I would ask for in-court identification.
THE COURT: You are identifying this woman in the white coat?
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: The witness is identifying --
MR. SMITH: The defendant, the person in the white suit.
THE COURT: Yes.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q She was your substitute teacher that day?
A Yes.
Q And does this day stand out in your memory as anything of interest happening?
A Yes.
Q Okay. Let me take you back to the beginning of this. You went to your classroom, correct?
A Uh-huh.
Q Were there other kids in the classroom?
A Yes. Like three or four.
Q What happened when you walked in the classroom?
A I noticed the computer was like a little turned awkward. I didn't know why, I just sat down and she told us to do something. I don't know what kind of work it was. We just went on our computers, and we were doing our work quietly. She said we could talk amongst ourselves, but not really loud.
Q When you say on your computers, do you mean to do some work on the student computers or the teacher's computer?
A The student computers. We were never allowed to go on the teacher's.
Q That was separate, is that what you're saying?
A Yes.
Q Mr. Napp never allowed you to go on his computer?
A Never allowed us to go on his computer.
Q That day in question, what was the substitute, the defendant doing while class was going on?
A She was at the computer the whole time. She was really mostly at the computer for a long time, for the whole class.
Q Where were you sitting during the course of the class?
A I was sitting at one of the computers because the computers were lined up along the side.
Q At the side?
A Along the side of the room.
Q There are not enough computers in the class for all the students to use?
A No. Some kids sit down and wait, some kids help out other kids on the computer.
Q Some kids were in the other parts of the room?
A Yes.
Q You specifically were on the computer, the student computer?
A Yes.
Q At some point, did you go up to see the teacher?
A Yes. To hand in some paper or something.
Q You had some work to hand in?
A Yes.
Q And what happened when you walked up to where the teacher was?
A I seen the computer, and I seen some pictures, and I could see --
Q When you say pictures on the computer, you mean the monitor?
A The computer screen.
Q The monitor screen for the computer?
A Yes.
Q And you saw various pictures on the computer screen?
A I seen two pictures.
Q Two pictures?
A Yes.
Q As best you can, I ask you to describe what type of pictures you saw on the computer monitor.
A I seen like one picture that was above another, one picture, and one of them, the top one was a white female, and the bottom she was like tan. I don't know if she was Spanish.
Q And how were these women, what was the nature of these photographs that you saw, these images?
A I don't really remember. I don't really remember.
Q When I say the nature, what was happening in the photographs?
A All I remember is they were standing sideways like this.
Q Did you see anything in the photograph?
A Yes.
Q Images, what did you see?
A Their upper body.
Q Meaning what?
A Their breast area.
Q Were they topless?
Let me strike this. Were they wearing clothes?
A No.
Q Were you able to see their chest area?
A Yes.
Q And they weren't wearing clothes, correct?
A No.
Q What about the bottom portion below the hips?
A No, I couldn't see.
Q How were they standing?
A Sideways.
Q These images of the topless women, were they both topless?
A Yes.
Q Both the women you saw?
A Yes.
Q And were they wearing any clothes anywhere on their body that you recall?
A No.
Q I couldn't hear you.
A No.
Q At some point --. Where was the defendant when you were looking at these pictures?
A She was on the computer.
Q She was still on the computer while you were looking?
A Yes. She told me to sit down, so I sat down.
Q You just sat down and went back?
A Yes.
Q At any point, did you see anybody else go up to the desk?
A Yes.
Q Who did you see go up there?
A I seen, first I think the first person I saw was [redacted]
Q At some point, you saw [redacted]?
A Yes.
Q Go up to the desk?
A Yes.
Q What happened when you saw [redacted], go up to the desk?
A I seen her push his face away. Everyone thought it was a slap. I don't know if it was a slap or a push, I was like wow, a teacher touched his face.
Q Let me go later on. After this incident that you saw these images, after that, did you hear discussions or -- in the classroom or outside the classroom concerning what happened?
A Mostly outside. Everybody was like --
Q I don't want to know exactly what they said. Rumors concerning what was going on?
A Uh-huh.
Q Discussions. Okay. And did this information, these rumors, these discussions about what was going on happen on the same day that you saw the images on the computer?
A Yes.
MR. SMITH: No further questions. Thank you.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Good morning, [redacted]
A Good morning.
Q [redacted], regarding this matter, did you discuss it with other students?
A No. Other students discussed it with me mostly. That was like yeah, I did see something.
Q Before you came in here today, did you discuss it with anybody else?
A Before I came in here?
Q Yes. What your testimony was going to be.
A No.
Q I believe you answered one of Attorney Smith's questions, you said you only saw the upper half of the body. Is that correct?
A Yes, of the two.
Q Is this your signature down here?
A Yes.
Q Is this your writing up here?
A No.
Q So before you signed this, you read the document, right?
A Yes.
Q Would you do me a favor? Would you read this last sentence right here out loud to the jury, starting right here.
MR. SMITH: I will object to this. It's improper.
THE COURT: Mr. Cocheo, did you want to mark this for Identification?
MR. COCHEO: It's impeachment, Your Honor.
THE COURT: It's a document. You can have it marked for Identification.
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
(Defendant's Exhibit C marked for Identification purposes only)
MR. SMITH: I object, it would be improper impeachment. He hasn't laid a proper foundation that he said anything that is different than what is in the document.
THE COURT: I don't know what he's going to ask.
MR. SMITH: Then I can't have him read the document out loud.
THE COURT: Do you want to question the witness regarding this?
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q You testified that, to Mr. Smith you only saw the upper part of the woman's body, is that correct?
A That was showing and her legs were showing, but I couldn't see down here. She was sideways.
Q In this document it says you saw a light-skinned Puerto Rican who was also naked.
A Yes. She was like tan, light skin.
Q How do you justify saying you only saw the top half of the body to Mr. Smith and this document says you saw a woman completely naked?
MR. SMITH: This is a mischaracterization.
THE COURT: Don't answer yet. Mr. Smith, your objection?
MR. SMITH: It's a mischaracterization of what he testified to.
THE COURT: Mr. Cocheo, you would have to be more specific.
MR. COCHEO: I will stand by the record, Your Honor. In response to Mr. Smith's question, if you review the transcript, it will say the witness said he only saw the top half of the body.
THE COURT: And I believe he stated that -
MR. COCHEO: Excuse me, this document contradicts that.
MR. SMITH: Judge, I object.
THE COURT: Mr. Smith?
BY MR. SMITH:
Q This document, the statement you gave to the police, you indicate that you saw her whole body, correct?
A Yes.
Q Did you, in fact, see her whole body?
A Not this area, only the side. (Indicating)
Q A full body shot?
A Yes.
Q When you were just testifying, you said you saw her breasts, correct?
A Yes.
Q That is the upper body, correct, that you saw?
A Yes.
Q When you were testifying just a few moments ago, you said you did see the rest of her body, you just didn't see the private parts, correct?
A I didn't see her private parts, I seen her whole body from her legs up.
MR. SMITH: Thank you. No further questions.
THE COURT: Mr. Cocheo? Any questions based on that information?
MR. COCHEO: May I have one second, Your Honor?
(Pause)
MR. COCHEO: No further questions, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Anything further?
MR. SMITH: No.
THE COURT: Thank you for coming in.
THE WITNESS: You are welcome.
THE COURT: I appreciate it.
MR. SMITH: The state would call [Student 4]
[Student 4] of Norwich, Connecticut, having been called as a witness on behalf of the state, after having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q [Student 4], how old are you?
A Fifteen.
Q Fifteen. You live in
A Yes.
Q How long have you lived in
A Seven, eight years.
Q Seven, eight years. Okay. Are you from
A Yes.
Q Okay. Do you currently go to the
A Yes.
Q Did you go to
A Yes.
Q How old are you now?
A Fifteen.
Q How old were you when you went to Kelly?
A Twelve, thirteen.
Q Okay. And do you remember having a teacher called Mr. Napp?
A Yes.
Q How do you remember Mr. Napp?
A He was my language arts teacher, he was one of my favorites.
Q Okay. And do you recall at some point having - first off, were you a student of his in October of 2004?
A Yes.
Q I'm going to ask you to speak up.
A
Yes.
Q And talk to the jury. Okay?
A All right.
Q I tend to speak fast. If we both speak fast, it will be hard to understand. I will try to slow down, if you will. Were you a student of Mr. Napp's in October of 2004, correct?
A Yes.
Q Do you recall at some point on or about October 19th, 2004, there being a substitute teacher in that classroom?
A Yes.
Q And was that substitute teacher a female or a male?
A A female.
Q If I ask you to look around the room and see if you could identify that person, do you think you would be able to?
A No.
Q I understand, it was two years ago. But even if you can't identify that person, do you recall the incidences of what happened, do you recall what happened on that day?
A Yes.
Q Okay. And why do you recall, without telling us what happened yet, why do you recall that? What makes it stand out in your head?
A Because there was something I wouldn't expect a teacher to see or look at.
Q Okay. Did you walk into the classroom, you went into the classroom, correct?
A Yes.
Q Your regular classroom, Mr. Napp's classroom?
A Yes.
Q Were there other kids in the classroom?
A Yes.
Q Where did you sit in relation to, let's say, the teacher's desk?
A Well, I am in the back of the room. There were basically three ahead of me.
Q And from where you are sitting, can you see the computer that the teacher uses?
A Yes.
Q And is there a different computer that the teacher uses from the students?
A Yes.
Q And you were sitting at your desk, and you could see the screen on the computer while you were sitting there?
A No.
Q At some point, did something interesting happen specifically to you in that class?
A Yes.
Q Okay. Tell the jury what happened.
A Well, I walked up to the desk to ask the teacher to help me with my work, and I looked at the screen and it was two naked ladies on there, and she told me not to look and pushed my face away.
Q Where was the teacher, substitute teacher sitting when you went up to the screen?
A At the desk.
Q At the desk or at the computer desk?
A At the computer desk facing the computer.
Q Was she actually engaged in a computer at this point in time?
A Yes.
Q And are the images, I will go back, I was getting more specific on the images. You saw these images on the screen of the computer?
A Yes.
Q Is that the screen that the substitute teacher was looking at?
A Yes.
Q As best you can describe, what type of images were they?
A Two ladies, no clothes on.
Q Okay.
A And they were cartoon.
Q They were animated or there was animation involved in the pictures?
A They were cartoon pictures of girls.
Q What did you see of the women, their animated figures, did you see their entire bodies?
A On one, I only saw the upper part and on the other girl, I saw everything.
Q Okay. When you say upper part, what. do you mean by that?
A Her head, from like her belly up. No clothes on or anything.
Q Nude breasts?
A Yes.
Q And on the second figure, you saw the whole body, correct?
A Everything.
Q The breasts?
Q And the other private parts?
A Yes.
Q And at some point, you said she touched you?
A Yes.
Q How did that happen?
A Well, she told me not to look, and she pushed my face away.
Q How did she push you away?
A Took her hand and just pushed my face like. (Indicating)
Q Softly? Hard?
A She probably hit me harder than she thought it was because it hurt a little bit.
Q What did you do?
A I went and sat down.
Q Okay. After this incident happened in the classroom or outside the classroom, did you hear any discussions between the students or anybody else concerning this whole thing?
A Yes.
Q Did you start hearing these discussions on the same day this incident happened to you?
A Yes.
Q Okay. Now, while you were in the classroom, do you recall seeing -- did you see any other person use the computer except for this substitute teacher?
A No.
MR. SMITH: Okay. No further questions.
THE COURT: Cocheo.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Good afternoon. How are you?
A Good, thanks.
Q You discussed this matter with a lot of your fellow students, right?
A Yes.
Q I'm going to show you a document and ask you if this is your signature on here.
A Yes.
Q Is the writing above your writing?
A No. It's the police officer's.
Q The police officer. Okay. Approximately how many other students did you
discuss this matter with?
A Probably at the time all my friends, probably like six, seven.
Q Let me ask you this [redacted], do you think that some of the information that is in the documents is the result of your discussions with other students?
A No. That is what I saw.
Q And once again, how many students did you discuss it with?
A Six or seven.
MR. COCHEO: Okay. Nothing further, Your Honor.
MR. SMITH: No further questions.
THE COURT: You are all set. Thanks for coming in.
MR. SMITH: My next witness is [Student 5].
[Student 5] of Norwich, Connecticut, having been called as a witness on behalf of the state, after having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q [Student 5], how do you pronounce your last name?
A [redacted]
Q I'm going to ask you a few questions, and I'm going to ask you to keep your voice up. A Right.
Q We are taking your dictation. And I'm going to ask you to speak to the jury when you give an answer.
A Okay.
Q How old are you?
A Fifteen.
Q And where, you live in
A
Q Are you from
A No.
Q When did you move here?
A Seven, eight years ago.
Q Eight years ago. You go to the
A Yes, I do.
Q And did you go to
A Yes.
Q How old were you when you were at the
A Twelve.
Q Specifically, in October of 2004, were you twelve years old?
A Yes. Twelve or thirteen.
Q Twelve or thirteen. Do you remember a teacher named Mr. Napp?
A Yes, I do.
Q And how do you know Mr. Napp?
A Re was my LA teacher.
Q LA is what?
A English.
Q Language arts?
A Yes, language arts.
Q Do you recall being a student of his on or about October 19th, 2004?
A Yes, I do.
Q Do you remember that day there being a substitute teacher in the room?
A Yes.
Q Do you remember if that substitute teacher was a male or female?
A It was a female.
Q If I ask you to look around the room, do you think you could identify that person in the room?
A No.
Q But you recall it was a female substitute teacher?
A Yes, I do.
Q On that school day, October 19th, on or about that date, do you recall anything of interest happening?
A Yes.
Q What do you recall happening on that day?
A Well, we were doing a project in class, and I had to print it because I was done and it was due tomorrow. So I walked up to go print it, and she threw her body in front of the computer and told me to sit down, which then I saw --
Q I will stop you. Which computer did she do that?
A Her computer.
Q The teacher's computer?
A Yes. The teacher's computer.
Q When you say she threw her body, what do you mean, she threw her body in front?
A The computer is facing this way, slanted a little bit, and she threw her body in front to try to block it. (Indicating)
Q Were you able to see past her?
A Yes, I was.
Q What did you see on that computer screen?
A Women in lingerie.
Q Okay. Real people?
A Real people, yes.
Q And how were they standing in lingerie?
A Just like posing.
Q And could you see their whole bodies?
A Well, she was in the way, but yes, I could see, yes.
Q And how many images did you see?
A Like two or three.
Q Were they all women?
A Yes.
Q And as you say posing, were they all posing in different lingerie?
A Yes.
Q I don't know if you know this, what type of lingerie; was it full lingerie that was covering everything?
A No.
Q What kind?
A It was --
Q Was their whole body covered?
A No.
Q Was it skimpy?
A Yes, skimpy, that's the word I was looking for.
Q Okay. And after this, did you go back to your seat?
A Yes.
Q At some point --. Now, during this class time period, was the substitute teacher using the computer?
A The whole time.
Q The whole class period?
A The whole class.
Q Did anybody else, any students, anybody else go up and use the teacher's computer during that time period?
A Not that I know of.
Q After class, but on that same day that this incident happened, do you remember the discussions about this in school about what happened in the class? Yes?
A Yes.
Q That information was clearly making its way around the school, correct?
A Yes.
MR. SMITH: No further questions.
THE COURT: Mr. Cocheo.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you, Your Honor.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Good afternoon,. How are you doing?
A Good, and you?
Q I just have a few questions. I want to show you this document and ask you if this is your signature at the bottom?
A Yes, it is
Q Is this your writing at the top?
A No.
Q I am sure before you signed this document, you read it?
A Yes.
Q Okay.
MR. COCHEO: Can I have this marked for Identification please?
THE COURT: Yes.
(Document marked for Identification only)
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q You just testified you saw women clothed scantily?
A Yes.
Q Didn't you say in your statement they were wearing a bathing suit?
A Well, I was twelve. To me that was a bathing suit.
Q Okay.
MR. COCHEO: Nothing further. Thank you, Your Honor.
MR. SMITH: Nothing further for this witness.
THE COURT: Thank you for coming. You are all done.
MR. SMITH: The state now calls [Student 6].
[Student 6] of Norwich, Connecticut, having been called as a witness on behalf of the state, after having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q Your last name is pronounced [redacted]?
A Yes.
Q I want to ask you a few questions. I will ask you to keep your voice up. That microphone doesn't work.
A Yes, sir.
Q I will ask you, and also, could you make your comments to the jury when you answer. Thank you very much. How old are you?
A I'm fifteen years old.
Q And have you lived in Norwich your whole life?
A No, I haven't.
Q When did you move to Norwich?
A Six years ago, I believe.
Q And have you been in Norwich Public School systems the whole time?
A Yes, I have.
Q And did you attend Kelly Middle School?
A Yep, all three years.
Q All three years. Do you remember being in Kelly Middle School in October of 2004?
A Yes, I do.
Q How old were you then?
A I was thirteen years old, I believe.
Q And do you remember a teacher called Mr. Napp?
A Homeroom.
Q He was your homeroom teacher?
A Yes.
Q Did you take any other class, any classes from him?
A Language arts.
Q Okay. Do you recall on or about October19th, 2004, there being a substitute teacher there?
A Yes, I do.
Q And was that substitute teacher a male or female?
A Female.
Q If I asked you to look around the courtroom today, do you think you could identify that person?
A I don't believe so, sir.
Q That's fine. You do remember a female substitute teacher?
A Yes.
Q On that day, October 19th, do you recall anything of interest happening that day in your memory? Yes or no?
A Yes.
Q Now, you walked in the room on that day, and was a substitute teacher there already?
A She was.
Q And where do you sit, where were you sitting when this incident occurred?
A On the far left near the back.
Q In the front or in the back?
A Near the back.
Q Could you see from where you were sitting the teacher's desk and the desk where the computer was on?
A Yes, but not the screen.
Q But not the screen. Is the desk where the computer is on, is it close to where the teacher's desk is?
A Fairly.
Q Is that near the front of the classroom?
A The desk?
Q The teacher's desk where the computer is.
A Yes.
Q You are saying you could see the computer but not the screen, correct?
A Yes.
Q During the course of this time while you were in class where this incident happened, was the substitute teacher doing anything in the classroom?
A Besides sitting on the computer, no.
Q She spent the predominant amount of time on the computer, is that what you're saying?
A Yes.
Q It was the teacher's computer?
A Mr. Napp's.
Q Mr. Napp's computer?
A Yes.
Q At some point, did you go up to the front of the class?
A When I threw away a piece of paper.
Q What happened when you went up towards the front of
the class?
A I crumbled up a ball of paper, I walked towards the front of the class, threw it away in the garbage can next to the computer and took a glance back, and I looked at the computer.
Q Was she on the computer at that point in time?
A Yes.
Q Did you see any images on the computer?
A Yes.
Q As best you can, what type of images did you see on the computer?
A I saw naked males and females having sexual intercourse.
Q Sexual intercourse. What type in general, was it all?
A All.
Q Did you actually see the photograph, the images of this?
A Yes.
Q And she was at the computer while this was going on, correct, she was actually on the computer when this happened, correct?
A Yes.
Q You then went back to your seat?
A Yes.
Q During the entire class time that you were there, did you see any other children or anybody else access that computer other than the substitute teacher?
A No.
Q After class, yes or no, after class, on the same day this happened, were discussions going on around the school as to what was going on in that classroom?
A Yes.
MR. SMITH: Thank you. No further questions.
THE COURT: Cross examination.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you, Your Honor.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Good afternoon, sir.
THE COURT: You will have to stay because he gets to ask you some questions.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q I just have a few questions for you.
A Yes.
Q Is your signature on these documents?
A Yes, they are.
MR. COCHEO: May these be marked for Identification, Your Honor?
(Defendant's Exhibit 5 marked for Identification only)
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Now, when you walked up to the computer, what did you say happened, you saw some items on the computer, what was the teacher's reaction? You say she didn't see you?
A I said she glanced at me.
Q Didn't you say in your statement the teacher didn't notice you saw the computer images?
A May I look at it?
Q Yes.
A Thank you.
(Document handed)
THE WITNESS: Yes.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Let me ask you this, you have discussed this case with a number of students?
A In that day and time yes.
Q And you have discussed obviously this case with the police, is that correct?
A Yes.
Q Once again, this is not your handwriting at the top, right?
A No.
MR. COCHEO: Nothing further, Your Honor, Thank you.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q On the statement, you had a chance to look at that statement, and to refresh your recollection, Correct?
A Yes.
Q When you went up to see the teacher, did she notice you coming up or do you know?
A I don't know.
Q At some point as you were walking to the garbage can, did she glance and see you?.
A Yes.
Q At that point, did she do anything to get off the computer?
A No.
Q What did she do?
A She looked right back at it.
Q She just went back at the computer and started looking at it again?
A Yes.
MR. SMITH: Thank you. No further questions.
RECROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q At the time she went back on the computer, where were you headed for, back to your seat?
A Yes.
Q So was your back to her?
A Yes, it was.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you.
MR. SMITH: No further questions.
THE COURT: You are all done. Thank you for coming.
THE WITNESS: Okay.
MR. SMITH: The state calls [Student 7].
[Student 7] of Norwich, Connecticut, having been called as a witness on behalf of the state, after having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q [Student 7], how old are you currently?
A I'm fifteen.
Q And do you live in Norwich now?
A Yes
Q Have you lived here your whole life?
A Yes.
Q Did you go to school in the Norwich school system?
A Yes.
Q Did you go to Kelly Middle School?
A Yep.
Q Do you remember being in
A Yes.
Q How old were you then?
A About thirteen.
Q Okay. Do you remember a teacher named Mr. Napp?
A Yes.
Q How do you know Mr. Napp?
A He was my language arts teacher.
Q Okay. And do you remember being in Mr. Napp's class on or about October 19th, 2004?
A Yes
Q On that date, do you remember a substitute teacher?
A Yes.
Q Do you know if that substitute teacher was a male or female?
A A female.
Q If I asked you to look around the courtroom today to identify her, do you think you would be able to identify her?
A Yes.
Q Would you look around and tell me if you see her?
A Uh-huh.
Q Could you point her out and tell me the color of her clothes?
A White.
MR. SMITH: We would ask for an in-court identification of the defendant.
THE COURT: The witness identified the defendant as wearing white.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q You walked into the classroom, Correct?
A Yes.
Q Were there other kids already in the classroom?
A Yes.
Q Where did you go when you walked into the classroom?
A I walked to my seat.
Q In relation to the teacher's desk, let me put it this way, in relation to where the computer was, the teacher's computer, where were you sitting?
A The back of the room.
Q Could you see the computer from where you were?
A No.
Q You could see the physical computer, but not what was on the screen, is that what you're saying?
A Yes.
Q At some point, did you leave your seat to go up towards the front of the classroom?
A Yes.
Q Why did you go up there?
A To see what the homework was.
Q You went to go specifically to communicate with the defendant, correct?
A Yes.
Q What happened when you got up there?
A Something started loading on the screen.
Q Okay. It was actually -- what do you mean by loading, was it a program or web page?
A A web page.
Q Have you used the web before?
A Yes.
Q You are familiar with what a web page looks like when it loads up?
A Uh-huh.
Q Was the defendant sitting at this computer while it was happening?
A Yes.
Q And what happened as the picture, as the web page loaded up?
A She turned the screen so no one could see it.
Q Okay. And did you actually see that screen before she was able to turn it away?
A Yes.
Q And did anything load up on there that you were able to see?
A Yes.
Q What did you see?
A I saw two pictures of two naked women.
Q And when you say you saw naked women, I'll ask you more specifically, did you
see their whole body?
A Yes.
Q Did you see their breast area?
A Yes.
Q Did you see their other private part areas?
A Yes.
Q After you saw this, what did you do?
A I asked her what the homework was and then I went and sat down.
Q Back to your seat?
A Yes.
Q The whole time you were in this class, what was the defendant doing?
A She was sitting at the computer.
Q Okay. Did anybody else during that time frame go up, meaning any other students go up or anybody else and access that computer while you were in the class watching?
A No.
MR. SMITH: No further questions. Thank you.
THE COURT: Mr. Cocheo, cross examination?
MR. COCHEO Thank you, Your Honor.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Good afternoon, sir. I have a few questions for you, if I may. I am going to show you two documents and ask you if you see your signatures on these.
A Yes.
Q Is the writing above your writing?
A No.
Q That is the writing of a police officer?
A Yes.
Q Now, how many students did you discuss this matter with after it occurred?
A I 'm not positive about how many students.
Q Roughly how many?
A About three or four.
Q But it wasn't until after you discussed it that you went to the police and made a complaint or made this statement?
A Yes.
MR. COCHEO: Nothing further, Your Honor
THE COURT: Redirect?
MR. SMITH: Quickly.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q After this incident happened, after you saw these nude images of women on the computer, on that same day were discussions going on about what was going on in that classroom going around the school?
A Yes.
Q Among the kids?
A Yes.
Q Okay. And actually you didn't go to the police necessarily, the police came to you investigating this, correct?
A Yes.
MR. SMITH : No further questions. Thank you.
THE COURT: You are all set. Thank you for coming.
MR. SMITH: At this point, no further witnesses. The state rests.
MR. COCHEO: I did not expect the state to be resting at this time, and I would ask for a continuance until tomorrow morning. I don't have any witnesses, not ready to go, Your Honor.
THE COURT: How many witnesses do you have?
MR. COCHEO: Approximately six, Your Honor.
THE COURT : Isn't your computer person here?
MR. COCHEO: Yes, but we have not had an opportunity to sit down and review his information, Your Honor, and he doesn't have his equipment here either, Your Honor.
THE COURT: I will ask the jury to step out briefly.
(Jury excused)
THE COURT: I'm not sure I understand why you are not prepared to go forward.
MR. COCHEO: I didn't expect the state to end.
THE COURT: That was discussed that the state would put on its witnesses and we would put part of the defense in. That would have given you an hour and ten minutes of new witness time.
MR. COCHEO: I did not expect this, the state to rest at this time.
THE COURT: Well, I am hoping we can get through all your witnesses tomorrow.
MR. COCHEO: I will try to do that, Your Honor.
THE COURT: That is all we can do.
MR. COCHEO: I apologize to the Court, Your Honor.
THE COURT: It's the jury's time that I'm concerned about, Mr. Cocheo. Bring them back out.
(Jury returns)
THE COURT: We will have to stop for the day. We are going to start -- Is there any reason we couldn't start at 9:45 instead of 10:00 o'clock? Normally, it would be 10:00 o'clock. What we will do then is adjourn until 9:45 tomorrow promptly, and we will try to move this along as we have been trying to do all along. Don't discuss the case with anyone. If there's anything in the press, don't read anything about that. Okay. I will see everyone tomorrow morning.
(Jury excused)
THE COURT: Anything before we adjourn?
MR. SMITH: Nothing from the state.
MR. COCHEO: Nothing from the defense.
THE COURT: Any issues prior to bringing in the jury?
MR. COCHEO: No, Your Honor.
MR. SMITH: Not by the state.
THE COURT : Are you ready to proceed?
MR. COCHEO: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The defense today will start its case. Mr. Cocheo, are you prepared to proceed?
MR. COCHEO: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Call your first witness.
MR. COCHEO: I call Herb Horner.
WILSON H. HORNER, having been called as a witness on behalf of the defense, after having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
THE COURT: You will be over there and not in the witness box?
MR. HORNER: I can start here, but I need to go over there.
THE COURT: Do you have any preliminaries?
MR. COCHEO: Yes, I do, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Have a seat there.
MR. HORNER: Thank you.
THE COURT: You can proceed, Mr. Cocheo.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Mr. Horner, what is the nature of your employment?
A Right now I am a computer consultant for my own company.
Q And what is your background in computer science, sir?
A It started about forty years ago. Basically I was hired as an operator at Electric Boat and they sent me to school to become a systems engineer. And basically what I did there was performed operating system generation and wrote programs for the analysis of engineering data. I then went to a company called Univac, and there I was a systems engineer. And we didn't call it this at the time, but basically what I was doing there was performing forensic analysis on hardware and operating system failures. That job I did was to determine where the computer failed, isolate that, and write the code to fix the problem and then continue on. During my tenure at Univac in that particular session I was there for about, say, maybe ten years. I worked for the Navy Systems branch of Univac and we handled most of the naval sites, even going to the point where we worked on some of the fire control computers on submarines and destroyers. I got tired of that, so I went back to Electric Boat and they hired me to do the same job basically, but on a different computer, an IBM computer. And I did the same job over and over again. I looked at main frame computer dumps, determined what was done and fixed them. I also got heavily involved in communications at that time. I got tired of that and I went back to Univac again. Now, there is probably a thirty year mark, I guess, maybe twenty-second year. I was hired by the Univac Navy Systems group again and I did ten years at Newport, Jacksonville, Florida, Point Mugu, California, and basically my job was to again perform analysis of main frame failures. And I got involved in what was known at this point in time, the precursor to the Internet called Defense Data Network where I was connecting computers on the East Coast Gulf to the West Coast to Hawaii. I got tired of that and I went to the commercial branch of Univac and got tired of that, so I started my own company working on the stuff; main frames and PC's. At this point in time I was picked up and hired by a group called Formula Consultants. They sent me all over the United States doing the engineering and computer analysis, forensic work, if you want to call it, for the Air Force. And they sent me to Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, and I worked on robotics, Scandinavian Airlines. So that is the background that led to me starting my own company. And basically what we do at my company is we develop websites, we write software to connect up common systems together. For example, at the hospitals we have blood machines and billing processors and different types of machines like that. I write the code to do this, me and my particular group. We also support larger networks out in the field like Ace Hardware. At one point in time I had eleven towns under my jurisdiction. I worked for the Berlin Police Department, Montville Police Department and the State Police doing the same basic job. There basically, whenever there is a failure and need to determine very quickly what it is and can it be fixed and what caused the problem. That's basically it.
Q After our initial interview, what action did you take and why?
MR. SMITH: Objection. It calls for a narrative. I think there has to be a question out there.
THE COURT: Can you be specific, Mr. Cocheo.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q After our initial interview, what actions did you take?
MR. HORNER: I would like to be able to start the presentation, because that is kind of answered in that presentation. If I can get it working. May I do that, Your Honor?
THE COURT: Yes.
MR. HORNER: As with computers, sometimes they don't work. I rehearsed this last night, by the way. It will take a few minutes, Your Honor.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Mr. Horner, can you tell us what actions you took concerning this case.
A Basically I - what I had to do is determine as much as I can about this forensic analysis of this particular computer. The first thing we did, my group and my company, we went out and found as much information as we possibly could, either through seminars or through the Internet and libraries on how to conduct this examination. And the reason I did that, even though I had a lot of experience doing that type of thing, I just wanted to make sure that I did not leave anything out. And I wanted to make it as thorough as I possibly could. So what I am showing here are all the references that I used to assist us with this investigation. And I don't know if it is necessary to read them all, but I can. And I also listed up there the authors and either the websites or where they were located.
MR. HORNER: Your Honor, may I read them? Those are more references. That is what provided the guidelines for us to be able to perform this investigation.
MR. SMITH: Can we approach for one second?
(Bench conference)
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Mr. Horner, what actions did you have to take to get to the site?
A You don't want the preparation?
THE COURT: No. The preparation used is not necessary to read into the record. Just get to where it becomes relevant to this case. Okay?
MR. HORNER: Thank you, Your Honor. Here I list out what I did to get a copy of the evidence and so forth. So I obtained a copy of the hard drive from the police department, the lieutenant that was here yesterday. We created many copies of that for thorough examination because we were going to look at several different ways. And we also used a couple of programs of mine to check the hard drive out to see if there were any deleted files. And the only difference between the original and the copy would be that most likely the copy of the hard drive would not contain deleted files, but we looked anyway. Basically what we want to do is look at the whole hard drive, look at anything that could possibly relate to what was going on. So we examined the entire hard drive from beginning to end, and we used those high level DOS programs to perform that analysis.
THE COURT: Okay.
MR. HORNER: There is more.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Mr. Horner, what were the results of the examination?
A The results were this, and it was kind of interesting because the minute we took the hard drive that the lieutenant gave us, which was the external hard drive, which means it could be connected to my computer, the technology that I use.
MR. SMITH: I will have to object again to this. I think I have to do it outside the presence of the jury. I will have to.
THE COURT: I warned you this could happen. If you could step out for a minute.
(Jury excused)
MR. SMITH: Judge, here is the problem I had at the bench and I will state it for the record. Quite a while ago I asked for discovery on any documents that he had created or was going to use in the course of this trial, specifically for this. That has been displayed. Unfortunately, the jury has already seen it. They are definitions of various programs that he allegedly or supposedly used to check it out. There is various information that was allegedly or supposedly on the hard drive copy that he got, that I would have liked to check it out obviously before trial. For example, one of them is, I believe, is a security alert document, spyware program, noted market score and the like. I don't see how I can effectively cross-examine based on these documents that I should have gotten before trial so I could check it out.
THE COURT: Why weren't these provided?
MR. COCHEO: I did not have these documents, Your Honor.
THE COURT: You didn't have them, but now here they are. So I am not allowing it. What will have to happen, your witness can testify about what he did and what happened regarding Mr. Napp's computer on that day and what the results of his investigation were. All right?
MR. COCHEO: Thank you, Your Honor.
THE COURT: You're not going to be reading all these things in. You don't even put them up any longer. Do you understand the parameters of your testimony?
A MR. HORNER: No, I don't.
THE COURT: You will answer questions from Mr. Cocheo regarding the results of your investigation.
MR. HORNER: Your Honor, will I have the opportunity to display on the screen the crux of the issue?
THE COURT: What is it?
MR. HORNER: I don't necessarily have to show it in terms of a narrative, but I can just show - I want to show the website.
THE COURT: Which website?
MR. HORNER: The website that took the defendant to the problem.
THE COURT: To part of the problem, you mean.
MR. HORNER: Part of the problem. All right.
THE COURT: You want to go to a website that she went to?
MR. HORNER: I have a copy of the website that she went to on that computer.
THE COURT: Right.
MR. HORNER: This is my testimony. While they were on that computer looking at hairstyles, they were redirected to another site.
THE COURT: Right.
MR. HORNER: That led to the pornographic icons which led to this pornographic loop that was out of control. The reason I want to do all this was to just to lay out the background. All these documents are right here in this document.
THE COURT: That was all supposed to be provided to the state before, all of it.
MR. HORNER: They can have it.
THE COURT: You don't understand. This is a trial. This is over. There is no time now. We are going forward right now. The demonstration - you can go to a website, if that is what you want, if it is a website that the computer went to that day.
MR. HORNER: Can I ask another question, Your Honor? There were things done before the 19th that led to this catastrophe, and that is a fact.
THE COURT: I don't know that, and we don't know what you know about that, and there is no foundation for that, so you can't testify to that at this point. You are testifying as to what that computer - what you found on the hard drive regarding this case.
MR. HORNER: Your Honor, I found spyware.
MR. SMITH: At this point my objection would be all the documentation - evidently he is going to use this at trial. It should have been provided to the state so we could check it out. If he is going to testify there was spyware on there and he has made a report in relation to that, for example, what is on the screen, we should have been provided that.
THE COURT: Right.
MR. SMITH: I don't think he should be able to reference that information.
THE COURT: Mr. Cocheo, you know that any information that was going to be testified to by your witness was supposed to be provided to the state.
MR. COCHEO: I understand that.
THE COURT: And I believe you do. I know you are saying you didn't know about it until right now, apparently. From the chamber's conference you told me, with Mr. Smith present, that you were going to do a demonstration of a website. Right?
MR. COCHEO: That's correct.
THE COURT: That's what you can do. Do you understand? That is what is going to happen. Bring back the jury. Any objection to that? Because that is what he did say he was going to do.
MR. SMITH: I do not have an objection to that, obviously. My other problem is, if he is going to reference information that he gleaned in relation to these worksheets, the documents that he created for the defense -
THE COURT: Right.
MR. SMITH: That should have been turned over to the state. I don't think he should be able to reference the information on this sheet.
THE COURT: I am not sure I am clear what you mean.
MR. SMITH: Specifically, he brings out spyware, all the information, all the spyware should have been turned over to the state and it wasn't, so we could have done an investigation to either prove or disprove the information he is talking about. That is what this discovery process is about.
THE COURT: Right.
MR. SMITH: I am clearly at a disadvantage now. I don't see how I can, unless obviously there is time provided, go back to look at the various sites, to examine the documents that he is putting in evidence or that he is using to base his opinion on. My assumption was he was going to base it on the information he had in the past, and this was discussed in chambers, if I am right, with Mr. Cocheo.
THE COURT: Right.
MR. SMITH: He would bring up a website and display this website.
THE COURT: Right.
MR. SMITH: This information was never provided. There was no indication he was going to use or reference that information.
THE COURT: What he said was a demonstration of going to a website that has been referenced to by the state in the state's case can be accessed, any website, and I am allowing that demonstration. I am assuming it will take him a few minutes to set that up to get back past that information. Why can't he just click on the website that he is going to be demonstrating?
MR. HORNER: You don't have unfettered access to the website, the Internet. I have to go through different equipment.
THE COURT: The plan was to go to a certain website?
MR. HORNER: I am not going outside the building. I have a copy of that.
THE COURT: Wasn't that the plan, Mr. Cocheo, to have him go to a certain website?
MR. COCHEO: That was the plan, Your Honor. I don't know exactly how he was going to do that, but that was the plan.
THE COURT: Are you able to do this, go to the website as a demonstration?
MR. HORNER: I can show you the website as I went to it, as I captured it. I am not really going to the Internet.
THE COURT: Fine. He can go to the website.
MR. SMITH: Yes.
THE COURT: And Mr. Cocheo could ask questions regarding that, and you can cross-examine regarding that.
MR. COCHEO: Okay, Judge.
MR. HORNER: May I ask you a question, Your Honor? This is - and I am not being disrespectful, understand where I come from, this is analogous to an airplane crash.
MR. SMITH: I will object to this.
THE COURT: You are not a lawyer, you are a witness. All right?
MR. HORNER: I am not a lawyer.
THE COURT: I am not going to listen to this. You just do what you are requested to by your lawyer, okay, and what the Court has already said, which is you are here to do a demonstration that is supposed to be something to prove the defense's case. All right? And you do what Mr. Cocheo asks you to do and what the Court has instructed you.
MR. HORNER: One more comment, and then I will go exactly where you would like me. I feel like my hands are a little tied at this point.
THE COURT: Right. What is your question?
MR. HORNER: That was the question.
THE COURT: That's not a question.
MR. SMITH: Based on my investigator - can I speak to him for one minute? I would like to get some information that might help me out on cross.
THE COURT: Yes.
MR. SMITH: It might also allow him to set up his website.
MR. COCHEO: If I may be excused to use the rest room.
(Recess taken)
MR. SMITH: Thank you, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Bring the jury in.
(Jury returns)
THE COURT: Mr. Cocheo, proceed.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Does spyware or adware create pornography?
A I don't think we are allowed to answer that.
THE COURT: Do you know what, sir? Answer the question unless someone objects.
MR. HORNER: The answer to that is absolutely yes.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q How does that occur, if you know?
A It occurs through programs such as spyware, adware, viruses and pornography sites being uploaded to the person's computer. It sits in the background, the background for that occurrence.
Q Did you have an opportunity to examine the Norton activity log?
A Yes, I did. And in the Norton activity log what it shows is that spyware -
MR. SMITH: Judge, I have to approach on this.
(Bench conference)
MR. SMITH: Judge, I would request that the witness not communicate with the attorney.
THE COURT: Mr. Cocheo, approach. Thank you.
(Bench conference)
MR. COCHEO: Could I just have a moment, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Yes.
(Pause)
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Did you see as a result of your examination whether the defendant directly accessed a pornography site?
A Absolutely not, not directly.
MR. COCHEO: I think that is the conclusion. May I have a moment, if your Honor please?
MR. SMITH: Objection, Judge, objection, He is a witness testifying on the stand.
THE COURT: Mr. Cocheo, just ask a question. Ask a question. Mr. Cocheo, are you trying to elicit something about this particular website?
MR. COCHEO: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: What is it that you want to ask your witness?
MR. COCHEO: Did this website lead to any pornographic information?
MR. HORNER: This site did not directly connect to pornography, however, this site enacted spyware and adware programs to be uploaded in to the computer. Then after this site was looked at by the children, you will notice the small icons.
THE COURT: That is stricken.
MR. HORNER: By the user. I will try to keep it generic. You notice the small icons there. They are very small. And the reason I want to note that is because even if there was an inappropriate icon, they would still be very small and not cover the whole screen. I think this is something to note.
THE COURT: Go ahead.
MR. HORNER: This site was then through the Internet files was redirected to another site. May I go to that site? This site led to another site.
MR. SMITH: May I ask for a non- narrative form based on a question?
THE COURT: Do you know if that is what the defendant did or not, or this is what you did to access another site?
MR. HORNER: Based on the results of the examination, the next site that I want to bring up was initiated by the user, not purposefully, but it was initiated.
THE COURT: You don't know that, sir. What you are saying, you want to click on this website?
MR. HORNER: I would like to go to the next website that was called.
THE COURT: So this called without anyone having to push a button?
MR. HORNER: Yes, it was called a redirect.
THE COURT: Go ahead.
MR. HORNER: Thank you. Now, this site is a site that they were redirected to; still more hairstyles. However, this site has pornography links in it. This is a Russian site. And the way I can prove that is if we were to take a look at the bottom of the screen right over here at the bottom of the screen you see - I don't know if you can see it - I didn't move it up enough - let's see if I can do it. Well, anyway, if you could see it at the bottom of the screen there is a reference to a site called [redacted]. That is a direct link to the porn site. That is a direct link to porn adware sites. And if the person tries to get out of this for any reason, if they were to click up here, anywhere else up here, it would take them at that particular time to a porn site, not in terms of giving you a listing of the porn sites that was described yesterday, but in terms of the availability to access that porn site. Do you understand what I am saying, Your Honor? Do you understand? In other words, availability is there. It doesn't mean you have to go there. Once this was clicked upon, either trying to get out or to stop, there is a sequence that takes place, and the evidence is on the hard drive, and it's almost like you can't get out of it no matter what you click on, and more information is going to come up regarding those specific items.
THE COURT: Are you saying it allows you to get to these other websites?
MR. HORNER: It allows the opportunity to go to the websites.
THE COURT: The opportunity. Stop right there. Mr. Cocheo, your next question.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q You described the opportunity to go to other websites; could that come up unintentionally?
A Absolutely.
Q How would this occur?
A In that particular case if a person wanted to terminate that operation, they click on an X, or if they clicked anywhere on the top part of that screen, that triggers a link to somewhere else, and that is basically what happened. The defendant or user went to an innocent hair site. They didn't see enough styles - without their control, they were redirected with a command - and this goes on behind the scenes while you don't even know it redirected to the site I just displayed. Now, hairstyles, the Russian site, in that site if I were online, I could show you all the porn links to it. If you tried to get out of it, you are trapped. If the person doesn't have experience, they are in trouble.
THE COURT: Mr. Cocheo, next question.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q If a novice person such as myself were to be on the computer looking for hairstyles, they could wind up in a pornographic site?
A Yes, you could, absolutely. You could even do a search on, for example, a name like Gayle Smith. You could end up in the background information to take you to a G-A-Y
pornographic site.
Q What if I tried to get out of that right away?
A In that particular case, I can't describe - I can only describe what is here.
MR. COCHEO: I have no further questions.
THE COURT: All right. Do you need the witness on the stand?
MR. SMITH: Yes.
THE COURT: Could you sit up here.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH
Q Obviously you have a lot of experience with the computer, I will grant you that. My question is, you were able to access this alleged hair website, correct, that supposedly redirected the user to supposedly other pornographic sites, Correct?
A Based upon the information I looked at.
Q I understand that. The answer is yes?
A Yes.
Q Okay. Did you actually go to these pornographic websites?
A I looked at one particular pornographic website and there was a reason for that.
Q I am just asking a question. You went to one of these websites?
A Sure.
Q But you had the ability to go to all of these alleged websites that were supposedly- you had the opportunity to go to ones you went to on this hair page?
A If I had prurient interests, yes, I could have.
Q Well, your job is to look at this information, correct, because you are here to testify about it correct?
A To answer that quite honestly one picture is worth a thousand words. I looked at the ones in the police report.
Q Okay.
A I looked at the first one.
Q Hold on. We are not talking about the police report, we are talking about what you supposedly did.
A Urn-hum.
Q Okay. So you supposedly went to this website, correct? And you have a copy of that website here. That is the website you showed on the screen?
A You are talking about the hair website?
Q The hairstyle website.
A Yes, absolutely.
Q I am not really that clear.
A Okay.
Q And to help the jury, hopefully, your testimony is that you took that hairstyle website off the hard drive copy that was provided to you from the Norwich Police Department?
A I don't know where you are going with this. I have several copies of that hard drive. Two of the copies are right there. If I were to go to a website -
Q No. Listen to my question. I will lay it out slowly. Did you get a copy of the computer hard drive from Detective Lounsbury from the Norwich Police Department?
A Yes.
Q Did you examine that hard drive from Detective Lounsbury from the Norwich Police Department?
A Yes.
Q This website page that you just showed here in court of the hairstyles, did you get that specific website image that you just posted off the hard drive that was provided to you or a copy, an exact copy that was provided to you by Detective Lounsbury?
A No.
Q So you on your own went to a website that was separate from the information got provided specifically related to this case, is that correct?
A No, that's not correct.
Q Okay.
A I did it both ways. During my examination I clicked on it and I went there and I got it.
Q I want to stop you. During your examination of what?
A The examination of the hard drive. I started to click on all the HTMLs and all the references, not all of them, but enough to give me a picture based on the line of what was going on.
Q So you hooked up the hard drive to a computer?
A Absolutely.
Q And you accessed information provided to you by the Norwich Police Department?
A Yes, sir.
Q And I would imagine that the information on that hard drive would come up for example, as a window, correct, some type of Internet browser window?
A Not necessarily. I have tools that will bring it up differently, but I did do that, yes.
Q Did you access directly from the link provided on that hard drive that was given to you directly on to the Internet?
A I copied the hard drive, because I didn't want to corrupt the evidence.
Q The information, either that actual hard drive or a copy that you made -
A That is important.
Q -- did you access directly from that information?
A I did.
Q And you went to the website, correct?
A Yes, I did.
Q And it is your testimony that when you followed trail from the hard drive onto the Internet, you went to the hairstyles website and on that website all the information just popped up, all the pornographic images and information popped up?
A You've got to understand, there are two websites here. There are two hairstyle websites. When it started with the www.hairstyles website that I showed you, that led by what is known as a redirect command to the new hairstyles website.
Q I will stop you right there. Does the user have to click on anything? I believe you testified on your direct, I believe, that the user would have to click somewhere on the hairstyle, original hairstyle page to get redirected to that second hairstyle page?
A Not necessarily.
Q Do you know what happened in this case, is that what happened in this case?
A In this case, because of the spyware and the adware that was being uploaded because of the interest of the user, there was an opportunity to go to many different sites being presented in the background in the Internet cache files. And by the way, there are many different files to look at. You can't just look at one set of files, you have got to look at the whole picture.
Q I don't think you really answered my question.
A All right.
Q On the first website do you know did the user of that computer have to click on any specific area of that hairstyle, first hairstyle website to get redirected to the second hairstyle website?
A It's possible.
Q Do you know whether the user had to do it or not? It's a simple yes or no question. Do you know whether the user on October 19th had to click on it or not?
A They had to click on it to get things happening the way they were.
Q Okay. Whoever used it would have to click on one portion of the original hairstyle website. Your testimony, I believe is they go to the second website.
A You get redirected to that. That is a very important issue. If you missed that detail - I guess you don't want me to tell the truth here, I guess. I am getting confused.
MR. SMITH: I will ask that that remark be stricken, and he answer the question.
THE COURT: The jury will disregard the last remark of the witness. Please answer the question.
THE WITNESS: Could you rephrase your question again for me please.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q You click,
the user would have to click on the first hairstyle website, correct? Then that directs them in some way to the second hairstyle website, is that correct?
A True, absolutely true.
Q Now, once in the second hairstyle website, that is where the pornographic images begin? I don't think you even touched on this on your direct, but I will touch on it so we have it clear.
A Right.
Q On the second pornographic website, excuse me, the second hairstyle website, is that where ads will just start popping up?
A The answer to that question is yes, and if the person decided -. I answered the question yes. Period.
Q Okay. Do you know whether when the defendant on October 19th went to that second hairstyle website, do YOU know based on your examination of the hard drive whether pop-ups or adware started to affect the computer and pop-up images?
A Based on the Internet files, I know that to be a fact.
Q Okay.
MR. SMITH: May I approach, Your Honor?
THE COURT: You may.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q I'm going to show you what has been pre-admitted as State's one, two and four. You have had an opportunity to look these over before court today?
A I've seen some of this, yes.
Q And I'm going to preface this question by saying this, when did you access the Internet to do your research on this information?
A Initially it was when we received the hard drive. About two years ago we started.
Q Okay.
A We started, and I have my document here to kind of prove that.
Q Do you know what the date was? I understand it's two years ago, memory fades; do you remember what the date was, approximately?
A November something.
Q So after the 19th, Correct, after the 19th?
A I think it was like November 18th, maybe not though.
Q But approximately a month, some time after, more than a week, more than two weeks or so?
A Yes.
Q Do you know what the nomenclature was of those two web pages, the hairstyle web pages on the date in question, October 19, 2004?
A I have got to think about that. The answer is yes, I could go look back and see them.
Q Do you right now know it?
A From back then, I would have to go back through my analysis.
Q Do you right now know it? Yes or no?
A From two years ago, do I know it?
Q As you are testifying to these facts you are testifying to, these things you are saying, do you know right now as you are testifying what the makeup was of these two hairstyle images on the date in question, October 19, 2004?
A You see, in my technical mind I am trying to determine what you're trying to get at in terms of make up. Do you mean what they look like?
Q Let me put it this way. As you testify right now you are talking to the jury; do you know whether those websites that you alleged link to pornography, in fact, had links to pornography on the dates in question?
A Absolutely.
Q You know that as you are speaking?
A Um-hum.
Q How do you know that?
A How do I know this?
Q Yes.
A If you bring up that particular screen -
Q Which screen?
A The new hairstyles. You will see the links there.
Q Are you talking about the information you downloaded from the Internet after the fact?
A No. I'm talking about the stuff that Lieutenant Lounsbury gave you.
Q Detective Lounsbury gave you these disk s. You are testifying on the date in question, October 19th, embodied in these hairstyles, the link html, is that correct?
A I believe some sort of Javascript.
Q I understand. Embedded in that would be the pornographic links that would provide the opportunity for someone to go to porn sites?
A Provide the opportunity to go there, to the best of my knowledge, to the best of my knowledge.
Q Why do you qualify your answer to the jury?
A Because you're talking about two years ago.
Q So you don't know?
A I'm pretty sure.
Q Pretty sure, but you don't know, correct? You don't know for sure?
A Correct.
Q You don't know for sure, do you?
A Can I look at one piece of paper?
Q You don't know what document that was? I am sure your attorney will look for it and help you out. As we speak right now, do you know?
A Just let me think, let me think.
(Pause)
MR. SMITH : Judge, I'm going to withdraw that question and move forward.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q You mentioned a website called [redacted], is that correct?
A That's a particular spyware.
Q I didn't ask you what it was. You mentioned that website.
A It's not a website, it's a link.
Q Does it come up in a web page?
A Somewhere on a web page it comes up. It certainly can.
Q Okay. How are web sites typically - their addresses typically stated on a web page when you look at them?
A Well, the typical way would be www. whatever, but there are other ways of doing it. It could be [redacted]. There is no set of rules.
Q And that would be defining various web pages, is that correct, is that what you're saying?
A Basically defines the web site when you get to the web site. Web pages are initiated and sent up to the user.
Q I ask you to look at State's Exhibit 3, do you see a web page on there called [redacted]?
A Yes.
Q That is a log in web site, correct?
A No. That really isn't. The answer is no.
Q That is fine. That is fine. Did you take the opportunity to go to that web
site?
A I am trying to think back on that. Not recently. But can I expand upon this?
Q Sir, when you were researching this, did you take the opportunity to go to the ''extreme" website?
A Absolutely.
Q Back then?
A Not recently, back then.
Q While you were doing your research for the defense, you had an opportunity to go there?
A Sure.
Q When you went to that page, did it say log on the page or to go in, one of those two?
A I apologize, I don't remember, to be honest with you. I don't remember.
Q Okay. You stated that if you go to these, the second hairstyle web page, that allows you to go to various pornographic web sites, that is your testimony, correct?
A You have the links to do that.
Q You would have to click on the links to do that, correct?
A Either deliberately or not deliberately.
Q I understand. Do you remember which links on the web page - you don't have it up - how many links there were to pornographic web sites on that web page, allegedly?
A Initially we saw there were quite a few on the left hand side.
Q I will have to stop you. Initially - when you say you saw it when you accessed the Internet at a later date or on a hard drive, information you got from the police?
A Web sites on the Internet are very dynamic; they are subject to change daily.
Q I understand that exactly. That is the point.
A Okay.
Q That is what I am getting at. So the web site that you allegedly accessed could have been substantially different than what was accessed by the user on the date in question, which is why I am trying to get you to focus on the information from the date in question, the information from the day in question, the 19th, that hard drive.
A Sure.
Q How many links on that were there to various pornographic web sites?
A I didn't count them.
Q Approximately?
A I didn't differentiate that. It wasn't a substantial amount of difference.
Q I don't know what that means. I don't know what you' re talking about.
A I'll give you an example. If there are four porn links on that site, then when they revamped it -
Q I'm not asking about the revamping, because I am not interested in what happened later, I am interested in what happened on that date in question. How many on the day in question? Can you tell the jury how many links were allegedly on that web page?
A From my memory, about four; two to four.
Q And that was on the second hairstyle web page, correct?
A Yes, sir.
Q I'm going to show you the same exhibit I showed you a few minutes ago. That is a listing of the various web sites visited on the date in question and on the cache file, correct?
A Yes.
Q Okay. There is the [redacted], correct?
A That is the same login that is there right now.
Q Thank you very much. That is it, correct? When a pop-up ad occurs or some malware causes YOU to go to a certain web site -
A Malicious ware.
Q When some sort of ware causes you to get redirected, does that become listed on the log in the cache? I believe mostly Javascript, correct?
A No. It will not be listed in the cache. There is a place you look for that and that is in the index.dat file.
Q Fair enough. Will it be listed in the temporary Internet files?
A Well the temporary Internet files contain -
Q I guess I'm not asking you a clear question.
A They contain many different things.
Q When a pop-up ad appears, is that information saved in the temporary Internet logs like you have right there?
A Pop-ups, yes, but not a redirect.
Q Okay. Redirects would not be?
A No. That is why they are so elusive.
Q I understand that. So whenever a pop-up would come through, it would show up here, correct, on the login? I am showing you again State's Exhibit 4.
A Not all pop-ups, but some of them would show up.
Q Why would one show up and not another?
A It's a good question. I never really figured that out.
Q Okay. Now, is it your testimony that the person using that computer went to the first hairstyle web page and then what happened?
A They were redirected to the new hairstyles web site, the Russian one. I think it's Russian. I see a lot of Russian symbols on there.
Q On page 10 of 31 of State's Exhibit 4, do you see two web sites here, number 1, number 2, number 3 and number 4 from the top?
A Yes.
Q One was accessed on the 19th, correct?
A Yes.
Q And your testimony, I believe, was that the second one would have been a redirect, correct?
A Absolutely.
Q Your testimony was that redirect wouldn't appear on this, correct?
A No. That's why -
Q I'm sorry, I asked you specifically about this log which was a temporary cache log.
A But that's not all of them.
Q Sir, what I am asking you - your testimony was that it wouldn't appear on here on the temporary cache log, is that correct?
A The redirect would not.
Q Okay. So it's your testimony now that actually the second hairstyle was not a redirect.
A The second hairstyle was initiated by a redirect from the original hairstyle site.
Q I understand that. You are saying that a redirect wouldn't show up here, correct?
A Absolutely not,
Q Thank you. Okay. Hold on one second. Based on your examination of the drive on October 19, 2004, were various pornographic Internet web sites accessed? I am not saying at this point based on this willingly, but were they accessed, were they displayed on the screen?
A I would say the icons had the availability or the ability to go on those web sites which were made available.
Q Is it your testimony, you can tell the jury this, yes or no, were the various web sites accessed? Yes or no?
A The computer did access them.
Q Based on your examination, did the images come forward?
A Thumbnails of those images started to come forward based upon the redirect of that site.
Q Did they display on the screen?
A In very small images, yes.
Q Okay. The redirect - it's your testimony, I believe, that the redirect would not show up on the log, correct?
A You see, there are several different logs.
Q The log I showed you which is the temporary cache log.
A It would not show up in the cache file.
Q If something showed up in the temporary cache log, that person would have to actively type in the web site or click actively to go to that web site, correct?
A Wrong.
Q That's what I am getting at exactly. Would a redirect cause it to be logged on the temporary cache files? I believe you said no.
A You've got to get it clear. A redirect is a command that is executed. The cache file would not show up. However, it would be in the index.dat file.
Q So when you got to the web site, when you were redirected to the web site, would that show up in the Internet Logs? It's a very simple question; either yes or no?
A Not in the cache file, but it would show up in the - it would not show up in the cache files, the Internet cache files, but it would show up in the index.dat hashing file.
Q So in order for it to show up on the temporary Internet files, that person would have to actively go to that site, correct? They were not redirected to that site, correct?
A Wrong.
Q Okay.
A You don't understand.
Q I hear you saying that.
A Give me more questions.
Q I am trying to get it with you. I will do it this way. If a person is redirected to a pornographic - any web site, that would not show up in the temporary cache files, correct, based on your testimony?
A Based upon my experience, based upon my testimony, and based upon those manuals over there, a redirect does not show up. It's on the index.dat hashing files.
Q The cache file?
A Hashing.
Q For the purpose of this examination, just for this examination, somebody accessed that computer, correct; somebody accessed it, correct?
A Absolutely.
Q Somebody went onto, according to your testimony, went onto various hairstyle sites, correct?
A Absolutely.
Q And then were redirected to pornographic web sites, correct?
A No. You have got it wrong. I am -. Here is the first thing that happened. They are looking at www.hairstyles.
Q I will stop you. I will go to a different area.
A Okay.
Q Someone in this hairstyle site caused the computer to go to these various pornographic web sites.
A Eventually, yes.
Q Eventually. How long did it take, eventually, that you are stating, to get from that hairstyle site to these pornographic web sites?
A Just a matter of minutes. It started at 9:20, by 9:25, 9:40, the ship was sinking.
Q I understand that. 9:25, 9:40; twenty minutes?
A But initially the problem, the redirect, I believe, took place. I have on my presentation from about 9:20.
Q About 9:20?
A Maybe a little bit after that, I believe.
Q Okay. A redirect happened at 9:20.
A I'm not too sure. I have it in my notes over there.
Q Okay. That's fine. And then what happened? Tell the jury then what happened after it was redirected to the pornographic web sites.
A What happened? The spyware programs and the adware programs started to go out to those servers that determined that this person -
Q Can I cut you off and have you answer this. In a layperson's terms, without getting too specific, what happened? What happened with the computer?
A What happened?
Q Yes.
A The person was redirected and had made available to them the opportunity to go to pornographic sites.
Q Okay.
A Uninitiated by the person other than looking at hair, innocently looking at hair.
Q Thank you. So when the computer was redirected and the person had the opportunity to look at porn sites, did your investigation come up with the fact that porn sites were actually accessed in some way?
A I would have to say yes, based on the cache.
Q Thank you.
A But not deliberately.
Q I didn't ask you that. They were accessed, correct? Now, over the course of your investigation on this hard drive, were you able to determine whether actual web pages were coming up, pornographic web pages were coming up?
A Some of them were.
Q Did you have the opportunity to determine whether pornographic images were actually coming up and being displayed?
A In thumbnail form, yes.
Q Okay. Well, some of them that were coming up, correct, were thumbnails, some of them were bigger.
A Not like what you showed in front of the jury.
Q Thumbnails are what?
A A thumbnail is a very, very small picture that is used as an icon so you can click on it and go there. Do you want -
Q Okay. You are saying only thumbnails were showing up?
A Only small images. There were larger images, but not screen size images.
Q Images of two or three inches?
A In some cases.
Q But clearly very visible?
A Absolutely.
Q On the screen?
A It depends on where you were at the time.
Q Okay. Clearly images that were visible on the screen, correct?
A If you were in front of it, yes.
Q Were some of these images of a pornographic nature?
A Absolutely.
Q Nude women?
A Absolutely.
Q Fellatio, cunnilingus and the like?
A Absolutely, absolutely.
Q Thank you. Is it your testimony - I am not sure, I don't want to put words in your mouth - when these images came on the screen, did they just pop-up at random, is that your testimony?
A That's my testimony. The machine was out of control and it was popping up one after the other. (Witness snapping fingers) Without a click history, this is a logical conclusion that a person sitting there when these started to pop-up, they started clicking and the more you clicked, the more you are going to get in. (Witness snapping fingers)
Q Did you run a click history?
A You can't run it.
Q It's your testimony you believe images were popping up, pornographic images?
A Based upon my experience.
Q The computer was out of control?
A At this point.
Q Boom, pictures coming up of nude women, sexual images, correct? And how long did that happen, based upon your looking at the information?
A Well, it's interesting, it looked like, quite frankly, it looked to me like it went on all day long.
Q All day? Pornographic images coming into this classroom all day long?
A Until somebody did something.
Q Let me ask you this. If somebody had hit the off button and turned off this computer, would the pornographic images still be coming into the room?
A I think you know the answer to that.
Q I'm asking you, would it still be coming into the room?
A If you turned the computer off, that would kill the volatile memory and the computer would not produce any thing.
Q Thank you. No images?
A If you turned it off.
MR. SMITH: Thank you.
THE COURT: Are you finished? Is that it, Mr. Smith?
MR. SMITH: Yes, Your Honor. No further questions.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
A Mr. Horner, based on everything that Attorney Smith has asked you and said, in any way has your conclusion in this case changed?
A Absolutely not, unequivocally, no. The conclusion is exactly as I stated it.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you very much, nothing further.
RECROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q I have to ask, what is your conclusion?
A I could have displayed it for you very clearly.
Q What is your conclusion? You didn't ever state it, I don't think. What is your conclusion?
A The conclusion is because of the lack of an updated firewall, because of the lack of anti-spyware, because of the lack of anti-adware programs, this computer was subject to advanced - to the opportunity for that person to go to pornographic sites totally out of control because there was no protection. And if I were allowed to show my findings, there were forty adware spyware programs tracking the person's interests. May I say one other thing?
Q No. And also, I would imagine, because whoever was in control of that computer didn't turn it off when these images were coming up, that allowed the images to be displayed in the room, correct or not?
A That is what you usually do.
Q I don't understand that answer. Correct? Yes or no?
A Yes.
MR. SMITH: Thank you.
THE COURT: Anything further?
MR. COCHEO: Nothing further.
THE COURT: You can step down. Mr. Cocheo, call your next witness.
MR. COCHEO: I call Julie Amero.
JULIE AMERO, the defendant, having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Ms. Amero, where do you currently reside?
A [redacted]
Q Are you married?
A Yes, I am.
Q How long have you been married?
A Five years.
Q What is your highest level of education?
A I have a degree in special education as well as a degree in kindergarten through twelfth grade.
Q Have you ever completed any special courses or training?
A I am NAEYC accredited. I can open and close day care.
Q How long have you been a substitute teacher?
A Four years.
Q Have you ever been a substitute teacher for the public schools in Norwich?
A Yes.
Q Which ones?
A Teachers' Memorial and Kelly Middle.
Q How many times would you say that you taught at Kelly Middle School?
A Half a year in 2003 and the first two months of 2004.
Q Was there any special courses or programs you have attended or completed to be a substitute teacher?
A Yes. They offer three days of substitute classes.
Q What type of instructions are you usually told to do or not to do while teaching class?
A Not to touch anything in the teacher's classroom without permission.
Q I am going to go back to the year 2004. Do you recall teaching at that. time?
A Yes.
Q Do you recall teaching at 19 in October of 2004?
A Yes.
Q Do you recall substituting for a teacher named Mr. Napp on October 19 at Kelly Middle School?
A Yes, I do.
Q What type of class does Mr. Napp usually teach?
A It's a Language Arts class.
Q At about what time did you arrive at school that day?
A About 7:30.
Q Did you see Mr. Napp that day?
A Yes, I did.
Q Did he give you any instructions on his class, on the plan to teach the students that day and if so, what were they?
A Yes, he did. We spoke for about ten minutes. He told me the plans for the day and he told me, showed me where the students were going to be sitting, and he told me to have a good day.
Q Do you recall approximately what time this was?
A This was before eight o'clock, quarter of eight or so.
Q Do you know if the computer was on the - do you know if the computer was on at this point?
A Yes.
Q At any time before he left, did you ask if you could use the computer?
A Yes, I did.
Q And what did you ask him to use it for?
A I asked him if I could use AOL to contact my husband because he was out of state.
Q Did he log on the computer for you or was it already on?
A The computer was on.
Q How much do you know about computers?
A My husband taught me how to use AOL right before he went on leave.
Q What did Mr. Napp - excuse me.
When did Mr. Napp leave the classroom?
A He left after I asked him to stay in the classroom. I excused myself to use the ladies room.
Q Was class started yet?
A No.
Q What did you do before class started?
A I went to the ladies' room and I came back.
Q At about what time was this?
A It was just before eight o'clock.
Q When does the first class usually start?
A It was around eight o'clock.
Q When you returned to the classroom, what did you do then?
A I walked into the classroom, and to the right of the class - the class is on the left, the teacher's desk has a space and there is another teacher's desk, and on the second desk was a computer. There were two children posed at the computer. I posed my body between the two children and looked at the computer. I looked at the two children, and I asked them what are you doing. One laughed and one giggled. I looked at the computer and there was hairstyles on the computer. Innocently, I thought no big deal. I asked one child, do you belong here, and he said no. I said get out, go to your class. To the other child I said do you belong here; he said yes. And I said take a seat.
Q How did the children respond to your questions and directions?
A They were laughing. They were giggling.
Q What did you do at this point in time?
A I did a homeroom call. I checked all the kids in. I gave the plan for the day.
Q What about the computer now; was the web site that the kids were looking at still on the computer?
A When I went back to the computer there was a hairstyle on the computer.
Q Did you go back to the computer after you gave the class their assignment?
A Yes, I sat at the computer. I didn't leave.
Q What happened when you got back to the computer and what did you do at this point?
A There was other things popping up on the computer that were not for children to see.
Q When was this going on? Did you see the computer - did you use the computer for anything else like checking your email or visits to other websites?
A At one point I did use it for AOL.
Q Did the children have to come up to your computer and possibly be able to see the screen?
A A few students did come to the computer, and I posed myself between me and the computer so they couldn't see things that they shouldn't be seeing in class.
Q What would you do if they came back up to the desk?
A I'd put myself between the student and the computer. I didn't want them to see anything on the computer. I stood in front of the computer. I sat to the side of the computer.
Q So is it fair to say that you absolutely did not want the children to see these objects on the computer and always tried to block the screen?
MR. SMITH: Objection, leading question, Judge.
THE COURT: I will allow it. Go ahead.
THE WITNESS: I'm sorry.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Is it true that you didn't want the children to see what was on the screen and tried to block the screen?
A Absolutely not. No child deserves to see anything like that.
Q Could you explain how the classroom was set up and where the students were in relation to the desk and the computer.
A The children were sitting against that wall. (Indicating) The computer desk was here. There was a large table full of paperwork from the teacher. This area was a bunch of windows. (Indicating)
Q Was there anything - was there any other teacher in the room at that time?
A Yes, Ms. Fagin, the interpreter for a deaf girl.
Q Did you ever ask her to leave the classroom at any point?
A I most certainly did.
Q Did you tell her the reason?
A No, I didn't. I didn't want to cause any alarm to anybody.
Q How did she respond when you asked her to leave the classroom?
MR. SMITH: Objection. This would be hearsay.
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING :
Q Did she leave the classroom?
A No, she did not.
Q At that point did the pop-ups finally go away or were you having a problem with them this whole time you were teaching?
A The pop-ups never went away. It was one after another. They were continuous. Every time I clicked the box in the corner, the red box, the red X, more were generated.
Q Let me ask you this. If you were having these problems, why didn't you just pull the plug of the computer?
A I did not pull the plug because I was taught never to touch anything in the teacher's classroom.
Q About what time did the class finally end?
A 2:45, 2:35.
Q Was this the lunchtime or break?
A That was the end of the day.
Q What did you do at this point?
A I went home. As I was leaving the building I saw Kate O'Boyle. Kate O'Boyle was the vice principal, and I saw her in the hallway. I stopped and I spoke to her.
MR. SMITH: Objection, Judge - I will withdraw that. [this line seems likely to be a transcription error]
THE WITNESS: I spoke to Kate O'Boyle, and I told her -
MR. SMITH: Objection. What she told her is hearsay. It's an out-of-court statement.
THE COURT: I will allow her to say what she said to Kate O'Boyle, not what Kate O'Boyle said. Go ahead. What did you say?
THE WITNESS : I said to Kate O'Boyle, the vice principal, did you hear what went on in the classroom today? And she said yes, I did. And I said, what are you going to do about it? She said don't worry about the pop-ups, that happens.
MR. SMITH: I have to object. I tried to stop whatever she allegedly said. I ask that that be stricken. They can bring that witness in if they want to.
THE COURT: What the assistant principal said, what she said is not - it is to be stricken unless she comes in and says what she said. Okay?
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Ms. Amero, did you have a lunch break?
A Yes, I did.
Q And what did you do on this lunch break?
A On my lunch break I went to the teachers' lounge. When I was in the teachers' lounge there was four teachers sitting there.
Q What was the teachers' reaction when you told them what was going on with your computer?
A When I was in the teachers' lounge I told four teachers what had happened in the classroom; the computer teacher, Ms. Galvin; a music teacher, an ESL teacher, and there was one more teacher. Anyhow, there was four teachers. I told them what had happened in the classroom. The music teacher went and told Kate O'Boyle that I was having trouble with my computer with pop-ups.
MR. SMITH: Judge - never mind.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Did you receive any help from anybody?
A No, I did not.
Q What did you do at this point?
A I went back with my lunch, because I didn't want to wait there, I went back to the classroom and had lunch.
Q About what time was this at this point?
A Roughly around 11:30, quarter of twelve.
Q When you went back to the classroom, was the door locked?
A No.
Q So anyone could have gone into the classroom during lunch, is that correct?
A Correct.
Q What happened when you got back to the classroom and looked back at the computer?
A The computer was completely covered with pornography, pop-up after pop-up. I went to the corner and I started clicking the red X. Every X made it go away, and then more would come back.
Q What did you try to do to try to get these things off the computer?
A Constantly clicking the red X in the corner.
Q Was another class to start shortly?
A Yes.
Q At about what time and what type of class was it?
A It's a language arts class.
Q What did you do at this point?
A I gave the lesson for the day to the class, and then I went back to the computer and put myself between the computer and the classroom so the children could not see what was going on.
Q For
the remainder of the day - how did the remainder of the day go?
A I sat at the computer all day long. That is absolutely true. I didn't want the children to see anything on that computer.
Q At any time did someone come to the classroom to try to help you to try to cure this problem?
A Nobody came, and at 2:35 school let out.
Q Not even the teachers that you reported the problem to?
A Out of the four teachers, not one came to help.
Q When it was the end of the day and you were leaving, did you speak to anyone about the issue before you left the school?
A I spoke again to Kate O'Boyle and Mr. Fain this time, and they said nothing about it. They said things happen, go on.
MR. SMITH: Objection to the hearsay element.
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q That evening while at home did you receive a phone call about the incident in question?
A I did. Scott Fain personally called me at home and asked me about the situation.
MR. SMITH: I will have to object. If we are going to let in her testimony, whatever anybody else said to her allegedly, that's hearsay.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q So Mr. Fain called you?
A Yes, he did.
Q The next day. What did you do when you got to school?
A I taught school.
Q Okay. Was Mr. Fain back at school that day?
A Yes, he was, and I talked with him about the previous day.
Q Did you see him at all, speak to him about the problem you had had the day before?
A Yes, I did.
Q What was the content of the conversation; not what he said but what you said?
A I asked him if he was aware of the pop-ups that day in the classroom.
Q What did you do next?
A I went and taught my next class for the next day.
Q Did anybody during that day come up to you regarding this issue?
A The principal called me to the office at the end of the day.
Q And was this problem discussed?
A It was.
Q Did you tell him everything that happened?
A I did.
Q At the end of the day what did you do?
A I went home.
Q When you arrived home later that night, did you receive any phone calls or instructions on where you were to teach the next day?
A Yes. Mr. Fain called me again at home.
Q I don't want to know what Mr. Fain said; I want to know if you received a call.
A Yes.
Q What happened after the conversation?
A The next morning I went to school.
Q So where did you work the next clay?
A In another classroom down the hall.
Q Did you go to Kelly Middle School at all the next day to discuss this matter any further?
A No.
Q So you worked at another school. You went to Kelly Middle School, is that correct?
A Yes.
Q You spoke with Mr. Fain.
A Yes.
Q At about what time did you arrive at the Kelly Middle School on that day?
A The last time I went to Kelly Middle School, I was there at 3:30 in the afternoon.
Q So this is the 21st of October, Correct?
A Yes.
Q What did you discuss when you sat down, with Mr. Fain? Just what you said, not anything he said.
A I asked Mr. Fain if I could come to school the following morning to pick the two children off the bus, to identify them.
Q Be cautious in your answer to this one; what was your reaction to Mr. Fain's statement? Not anything he said, just your reaction.
A He didn't want me to come identify the children.
Q After you left that day, did you ever hear from anyone regarding your job?
A That night Mr. Fain called me and told me -
Q Don't say what he said. Did he call you that night?
A Yes.
Q As a result of that call, did it have any effect on you?
A I wasn't working for that school system any longer.
Q Okay. Did you call anyone to discuss being a substitute teacher?
A Yes.
Q And who would that be?
A I called Windham Tech.
Q And what have you been doing since this incident?
MR. SMITH: I object to this as irrelevant to what happened on October 19.
THE COURT: I will sustain that objection.
MR. COCHEO: I will withdraw the question.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING :
Q Mr. Amero, do you yourself have a computer at home?
A Yes, we do.
Q And you obviously know how to use that computer, is that correct?
A I use it for AOL.
MR. COCHEO: Okay. Nothing further.
THE COURT: The staff is entitled to a morning break. We will take a fifteen minute recess.
(Jury excused)
MR. SMITH: I want to be clear. Obviously the witness is still under oath and still testifying. She can't talk about her testimony until the cross examination is over.
THE COURT: You are not to discuss this until after you have finished with your testimony, which will be cross-examination by Mr. Smith. You can't discuss your testimony. Okay?
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: Anything else?
MR. SMITH: No.
THE COURT: We will pick up on the cross examination.
THE WITNESS: That doesn't mean I can't talk to my lawyer?
THE COURT: Not about the testimony.
(Recess taken)
THE COURT: Are you ready to bring the jury back out?
MR. SMITH: Yes, Your Honor.
(Jury returns)
THE COURT: Good morning. Of course, you are still under oath.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q Ms. Amero, how long had you been a substitute teacher in that school prior to this incident?
A I taught in 2003, almost the whole year, and the first two months of 2004.
Q Okay. Now, I will start and ask you, you stated several times numerous pornographic images would come up on your screen, correct?
A Yes.
Q And it's your testimony at least that they were popping up uncontrollably, is that correct?
A Yes.
Q So you are saying you didn't have any ability to stop those pop-ups from happening, correct?
A Correct.
Q Okay. And this went on substantially from when you were left alone in the classroom without another adult in there until the end of the day?
A I'm sorry. I don't understand.
Q Were these alleged pop-ups, as you called them, happening, I should say all day?
A Yes.
Q From when you first were in the classroom alone without Mr. Napp?
A Yes.
Q Until the end of the day, correct?
A Yes.
Q And there were periods, I believe your testimony is - how many times did you leave that classroom during the course of the day?
A I left twice.
Q And when was that?
A On my break for lunch and when I went to the teacher's lounge, and at the end of the day.
Q Do you recall when your break for lunch was?
A I believe it was 10:30, 11:00, in that area.
Q Okay. And you went to the break room, correct?
A Yes, I did.
Q That's where you allegedly made these statements, Help me?
A It's not allegedly, it was made.
Q Thank you.
A Okay.
Q So when you allegedly made these statements, you were saying there were people around you that heard it?
A Four people.
Q Do you recall any of their names again?
A Ms. Galvin was the computer teacher; Anastasia something was the art teacher; Mary something, she was the music teacher, and there was another woman in the room, Merja Lehtinen, and
she was the ESL, English as a second language teacher.
Q Was she a teacher at that point?
A I think she was.
Q And were you friends with her?
A I knew her.
Q Are you friends with her outside of the school, are you friends with her?
A No.
Q When you left to go to lunch, I believe it was, you said that you left the door open so more kids could get in, correct?
A I did not say that.
Q I'm sorry, I apologize. You left to go to lunch.
A Um-hum.
Q When you got back there were more kids in the classroom, is that correct?
A There were kids, not in the room, they were in the hallway.
Q Clear enough. Did you close the door?
A The door was open.
Q To the room?
A Yes.
Q Had you left that door open?
A Yes, I did.
Q You're not supposed to touch anything, correct?
A Not supposed to.
Q It's your testimony to the jury - and how old are these kids that are in the school?
A Twelve, thirteen, some eleven.
Q I will ask you this; in relation to the rest of the school, where was this classroom that you were teaching, and I will put it in this context; did it connect to a hallway where people go through?
A Yes.
Q Do kids normally go through there?
A Yes.
Q So you are telling this jury that you had uncontrollable pornographic images popping up on your computer?
A Um-hum.
Q You couldn't do anything about it; you left the room open with all the kids going by?
A Yes.
Q Were you concerned that maybe a kid would look in and see those images that were uncontrollably allegedly popping up on your computer?
A Yes, I was.
Q Did you think that maybe you should close the door?
A I didn't have a key to open it.
Q I understand that. Did you think maybe you could close the door?
A No.
Q You didn't consider closing the door?
A No.
Q Okay. That's fine. So when you got there in the morning, you go in and who is in the classroom?
A Mr. Napp and some children.
Q Okay. And he logged in the computer for you, correct?
A Wrong.
Q Who logged onto the computer?
A I'm not sure.
Q Was the computer logged on?
A The computer was on.
Q Were you able to access the Internet at any point?
A Yes, I was.
Q In order to do that it would have to be logged in, or do you know that?
A I know somebody has to log in. I am a substitute, I have no logon.
Q Thank you. So somebody logs onto the computer. So you did have access to the Internet that day.
A I did.
Q While you were there in the morning; at what time was this?
A When I got to the classroom?
Q When you first got there.
A Around quarter of eight.
Q And I believe it's your testimony that you were there talk in g to Mr. Napp, correct?
A Um-hum.
Q And he set you up for the setup for the day.
A Yes.
Q And you asked him to wait while you used the bathroom, correct?
A Um-hum.
Q I am assuming you know that as a substitute teacher you don't leave the kids alone in the classroom.
A Yes.
Q You wanted to make sure an adult was present in the classroom
A Yes.
Q You leave, you come back and then Mr. Napp leaves, correct?
A No.
Q What happened?
A Mr. Napp was not in the room when I returned.
Q I see. So there is a break, your testimony is there is a break, correct?
A A break.
Q A break between when you left - a break of there being an adult in the room?
A Yes.
Q It's your testimony the kids had free range in that room?
A Possibly.
Q Were there any other adults there?
A I wasn't there before school; I don't know what happened.
Q I am not asking you that; I am asking about the time frame you would have knowledge of.
A Okay.
Q When you came back from the bathroom, how long were you gone?
A Probably five minutes.
Q So when you came back from the bathroom in five minutes, it's your testimony that the children were on the computer?
A Yes.
Q Two children?
A Two.
Q One of them was a child that was in your class?
A Yes.
Q Okay. And somebody else was another kid in the school?
A Yes. He didn't belong there.
Q Be didn't belong in that class?
A Yes.
Q Okay. And somebody else, was it another kid in the school?
A Yes. He didn't belong there.
Q He didn't belong in that class?
A Yes.
Q But he most likely belonged in the school?
A Oh, yes.
Q And you told him to get away from the computer?
A I asked them each if they belonged in the classroom first, and they were laughing and giggling, and one of than was excused to his classroom for homeroom.
Q And he left. But the one kid that you are saying now accessed the site, he was still in your classroom, correct?
A Yes.
Q And so what did you do then? You then began to teach?
A The kids came.
Q Yes.
A And I did role call, homeroom.
Q Do you remember the kid's name, the supposed kid that was sitting there, do you remember his name?
A No.
Q So what happened? You do role call?
A I gave the lesson for the day.
Q Okay.
A Some kids stayed for first period, some kids left. It was their homeroom.
Q Okay. Then what did you do?
A After I gave my lesson, I went back to the computer.
Q Why did you go back to the computer?
A Because when the kids left the computer, there was hairstyles on it.
Q And then what happened?
A I went back and there was hairstyles on it.
Q And then what did you do when there were hairstyles on it?
A I clicked the little red X in the red corner.
Q Then what happened?
A A bunch of things happened.
Q What happened?
A Pornography.
Q Images?
A Images.
Q You called them inappropriate images for the children.
A Very inappropriate.
Q According to you, what was happening?
A I am not sure the technical term.
Q I don't care about the technical term, I don't believe you are necessarily an expert in computers.
A No.
Q In layperson's terms, what happened?
A Every time I clicked the red X, something else came back.
Q What do you mean by something else came back?
A Pictures and headings and just pop-ups. There were things.
Q Okay. And are you saying pornographic images?
A Some were and some weren't.
Q At that point did you find this alleged kid that supposedly had caused some of this to happen? He was in your class, right?
A At that point, yes.
Q Did you call him up?
A No.
Q Did you pull him aside and say, What did you do?
A No.
Q Why are you accessing pornography on my computer?
A No.
Q You didn't do anything?
A No.
Q You sat at this computer for the whole class?
A Yes.
Q Trying to get it off?
A Yes.
Q Periodically some kids came up, Correct?
A Yes.
Q Did you think that it was appropriate that these pornographic images were popping up in the classroom?
A No.
Q Did you think that was a situation that could potentially be harmful to the kids?
A I did not intend for any of those children -
Q I didn't ask you that. Did you think that was a situation that could potentially be harmful to the kids?
A Yes.
Q Okay. So the kids come up. Did any of the kids mention to you that they had seen the pornographic images?
A No.
Q You made it a point to get between them and the computer to block them?
A Yes, I did.
Q The computer setup was like a base and monitor?
A Yes. Right here facing that wall. (Indicating)
Q And how long had you - how long had it been since you had gone to this training class as a substitute?
A A year and a half earlier.
Q They told you don't touch anything?
A Correct, without permission.
Q Could you touch like a piece of chalk on the chalkboard?
A Yes.
Q Could you turn off the lights in the room when you left?
A I don't know.
Q Have you ever done that? Do you think that is reasonable?
A I don't know.
Q Do you think it's reasonable to sharpen a pencil?
A Yes.
Q If you needed to write something?
A Yes.
Q Do you think it might be reasonable that if pornographic images are popping up in your opinion all over the classroom creating a dangerous situation that might injure these kids, do you think it might be reasonable to turn off the monitor?
A No.
Q That's not reasonable?
A No.
Q Okay. I didn't ask you about turning off the computer, just the monitor that would display images.
A I wouldn't know the difference between a monitor and -
Q You just said there was a monitor and a base, that's why I asked you that.
A I don't know where the buttons are.
Q Okay. That's fine. That's fine. You never turned on a monitor on a television set?
A On a television I have, yes.
Q You don't know anything about a computer monitor?
A No.
Q You don't know that you can turn on and off a computer monitor?
A I'm not sure if I would be able to turn it on and off.
Q Could you turn off a computer?
A I've never done it.
Q You've never turned off a computer?
A No.
Q Do you think you could pull a plug out of a wall?
A Yes, I could.
Q You made the choice, it was your choice, according to your testimony, and for the basis of this argument, going along with you saying these pop-ups were coming up
uncontrollably, you made the choice to allow this situation to happen as opposed to either turning it off or unplugging it, that was your choice to make, correct?
A Not really.
Q Somebody was forcing you right then and there to not end it?
A I was told by Norwich Public Schools not to touch anything in the teacher's classroom.
Q You interpreted that to mean when porn is being unfiltered coming in the classroom to kids to have access to it, you interpreted to be let it happen, I'm not going to turn off the computer?
A I did not let any of those children witness -
Q I didn't ask you that; I asked you, you interpreted that as not stopping it from happening.
A I did my very best.
Q And the very best you did was by sitting at that computer all day and clicking through the screens, correct?
A I asked for help too.
Q I will get to that. Clicking through the screens.
A Yes. Trying to make it go away.
Q And your very best also was leaving the classroom, leaving it unlocked with the pornography coming up continually, correct?
A These was no one in the room.
Q I understand that. Pornography coming up consistently, that was your very best, correct, that's your testimony, correct? Yes or no?
A Yes.
Q Okay. Pornography wasn't coming up all day, was it?
A As far as I was concerned, yes, it was.
Q You were able to function on that computer at some point, didn't you?
A Yes.
Q You ware able to get in and access the Internet yourself and access your email.
A Yes.
Q At some point the pornography stopped coming up.
A I clicked the red box, yes.
Q And it stopped?
A Yes.
Q And when was this?
A I don't remember.
Q Was this before lunch? After lunch?
A Before lunch.
Q Before you took that break?
A Yes.
Q So after lunch were there more porn sites coming up?
A Yes.
Q And how often, how often did those porn sites keep coming up?
A They were constant.
Q Boom, boom, boom. And again, you left the computer on, correct?
A Yes.
Q Popping up, popping up until you left that day.
A Yes.
Q It's your testimony that nobody came to help you.
A No.
Q Nobody helped you pull the plug out.
A Nobody came to help me.
Q Okay. So the pornography sites are being accessed all day, things are popping up all day; what time did you leave the classroom?
A Again, at the end of the day.
Q What time was that?
A Approximately 2:30, 2:35.
Q 2:30 to 2:35. Up until 2:30, 2:35 pornography was uncontrollably coming to this screen?
A Yes.
Q What did you do when you left?
A I walked through the hallways, saw Kate O'Boyle.
Q Allegedly you told these people -
A No, I did tell them.
Q I don't know. Allegedly you told these people, and then you left for the day.
A I did.
Q Okay. I was unclear about a few things concerning about when you went back to Kelly Middle School. I want to try to clear that time frame up. This happened on the 19th, correct?
A Yes.
Q The next day, the 20th, were you working at Kelly Middle School?
A I worked for the following three days.
Q I'm asking you a question; were you working at the Kelly Middle School?
A Yes.
Q Did you get called in the office on the next day?
A No.
Q And you worked at Kelly Middle School for three days total?
A After that, yes.
Q So this happened on the 19th?
A Yes.
Q 21, 22, 23.
A 19, 20, 21.
Q What about the 23rd?
A No.
Q When is it that they finally terminated you from coming to that school?
A The 21st at 3:30 in the afternoon.
Q 21st, I'm sorry.
A Yes.
Q And how did that termination happen?
A Mr. Fain called me in the office and he showed me a group of papers and stood up in front of me and he said, this is what you do in my classroom? And I said this is not what happened.
Q Ma'am, it happens that you' re called into the office and you're terminated.
A Yes.
Q Now, during the course of that you learned that investigation had been done because there were some documents presented to you, correct?
A I didn't know of an investigation, that is all he had was some paperwork.
Q Some documents had been shown to you, correct?
A Yes.
Q And it was after documents were shown to you that you were terminated, correct?
A At the end of the day, yes
Q And now, during the course of this day were you aware that rumors of you accessing pornographic websites were going around the school?
A Yes.
Q That discussions were going on between the kids and other people that you were accessing pornographic websites?
A Yes.
Q And you knew that happened during the actual day while the class was in?
A Yes.
Q And still you didn't turn off the computer?
A No.
Q And you allowed these pornographic websites to come in to the classroom from basically, you are saying, from about 8:15, 8:20 until about 2:30, 2:45?
A Yes, 2:30.
Q Thank you. One more question. You allowed it to come in and you didn't stop it, right?
A I'm sorry?
Q You didn't stop it, right? Yes or no? You didn't stop it; you didn't unplug it?
A I did the best I could.
Q And that would be the best you could would be sitting there blocking the screen?
A I informed four teachers and the vice principal.
Q You didn't stop it, did you?
A I asked for help.
Q You didn't stop it?
A Yes, I did.
Q You did.
A I tried to.
MR. SMITH: Thank you. No further questions.
THE COURT: Redirect.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Mrs. Amero, you said you didn't close the door, correct?
A I did not close the door.
Q You were following the school rules, correct?
A Yes.
Q You didn't unplug the computer, right?
A I did not.
Q You were following the school rules once again.
A Right.
Q You are a substitute teacher there.
A That's all I am.
Q And also you said even though you heard rumors were going on around the school about this issue, you still did nothing, you didn't try to hide anything.
A No. I spoke freely about it with teachers and children.
MR. COCHEO: Excuse me one moment.
(Pause)
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q Now, the kid that you said was on the computer in the first place, you never talked to him, is that correct?
A No.
Q Do you keep keys to the door for the school?
A No.
Q In what way was the monitor facing in your school regarding your doorway?
A The door would be behind me, the computer was facing the wall. There were windows here. The children sat there. (Indicating)
Q So if you walked by, could you see the screen?
A No.
MR. COCHEO: Nothing further, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Recross.
RECROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q If you didn't walk by but if you came in and talked to the teacher that day, asked what the homework assignment was, you would see the screen, correct?
A. It was impossible.
Q Then why were you blocking it?
A I was blocking it to stop a child from seeing it.
Q If you blocked it, how was it -
A It wasn't able to be seen because I blocked it.
Q So if you hadn't completely blocked it, could the kids have seen it?
A Possibly.
Q When the kids come up to throw anything in the trash or talk to you, if you hadn't noticed they necessarily were coming up, could they have seen it?
A Possibly.
Q [redacted], do you remember that kid that testified?
A Vaguely.
Q Do you remember a kid coming up and you physically pushing his face away?
A I did not.
Q You did not what?
A Physically push his face away. I put my hand up in front of him and told him not to look.
Q Okay. Obviously, again, you were concerned about the images on the screen?
A Very much so.
Q This struck me on redirect, you said you told teachers and other children about it.
A Yes.
Q So you told other children in the school you had pornography coming up on your computer?
A Children were discussing it, and I said I was trying to clean up a mess two of their classmates had left.
Q Did you tell them, hey, pornography is still coming up on my computer?
A I don't think I got into it. It was not something I wanted to discuss.
Q Who else did you tell in the school? You told teachers and a bunch of kids you had porn on your computer?
A A couple of children that discussed it, yes.
Q Did you ever think about talking to this kid or taking him to the office that you say allegedly brought the pornography up in the first place, did you ever think of
doing that?
A I tried to get Scott Fain to let me identify the kid.
Q On the day it happened while you allowed this pornography to come in to the class, did you ever think of taking that kid to the office?
A No.
Q On the day in question I believe there was an adult in the class, a sign language interpreter.
A Yes.
Q You went up and told her you had to go to the bathroom, correct?
A No, wrong.
Q Did you tell her why you were leaving the class?
A No.
Q Did you think it might be important to tell the only other adult in the classroom, hey, there's uncontrollable pornography coming up in to my classroom; did you think it might be important?
A I didn't want to concern her with that. That is why I asked her to leave the classroom.
MR. SMITH: No further questions. Thank you.
BY THE COURT:
Q Did you substitute for Mr. Napp's class on the 20th, the next day?
A No.
THE COURT: Any questions based on my question? Mr. Cocheo, anything further?
MR. COCHEO: Yes, please.
RE-REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q With respect to the child that was on your computer, he wasn't, isn't it true he wasn't looking at the pornography, he was looking at hairstyles?
A Yes.
Q Is that the reason you didn't talk to him?
A It was hairstyles only.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you.
RE-RECROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q Isn't it your contention that the hairstyle website led to the pornographic websites?
A Yes, it did.
Q And pornographic websites were popping up; you didn't talk to any kid that supposedly had caused this to happen, that's your testimony, correct?
A Yes, it is.
MR. SMITH: No further questions.
THE COURT: I have another question.
BY THE COURT:
Q When you left the classroom on the 19th at 2:35, was the computer still on with these things?
A Yes.
Q You don't know what happened, and it was never turned off?
A No.
Q The next day these things would still be on?
A Yes.
THE COURT: Anything based on my questions?
MR. SMITH: No, Your Honor.
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Isn't it true you didn't talk to this kid because the principal wouldn't let you take him off the bus?
MR. SMITH: Objection, beyond the scope. Asked and answered.
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. COCHEO: Nothing further.
THE COURT: Anything further, Mr. Smith?
MR. SMITH: No, Your Honor.
THE COURT: You can step down. Do you have any other witnesses, gentlemen?
MR. COCHEO: One more witness.
MERJA HELEN LEHTINEN, having been called as a witness on behalf of the defense, after having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Good afternoon, Ms. Lehtinen. I have a few questions for you. Where do you currently reside?
A [redacted]
Q And your present employment?
A I have several jobs. I am a journalist, and I also work in advertising for two - three major news bureaus.
Q What is your educational level?
A Undergraduate, Dartmouth, BA. I went to the University of Helsinki for a Ph.D. I didn't stand for the orals, and I completed my doctorate.
Q Were you at some point a teacher in the Norwich Public School System?
A I was part-time, yes.
Q How long were you a teacher there?
A I was a substitute teacher from 2000 until 2004, and then I became a full-time tutor in 2004 until November 2005.
Q At some point you were a teacher at the Kelly Middle School?
A I was a substitute teacher, and I was a tutor at the Kelly Middle School.
Q Do you know a woman named Julie Amero?
A I do know Julie.
Q Do you see her in the courtroom today?
A Yes, I do.
Q How do you know her?
A I met her at Teachers' Memorial School when we were both substitute teachers there.
Q How long have you known her?
A Probably two or three years.
Q When you were working at Kelly Middle School, at any time do you recall working at the same time she was?
A Yes, I do.
Q I'm going to go back to the date of October 2004. Do you recall working at the Kelly Middle School at this time?
A Yes, I was.
Q Do you know Ms. Amero, do you know that Ms. Amero was teaching there at that time as well?
A Yes, I did.
Q Do you recall an incident that occurred that happened October 19th, 2004 that involved Ms. Amero?
A I can't say it's October 19th, but I remember a day in October that Ms. Amero came running into the teachers' room, yes.
Q On that day around lunchtime, Ms. Amero, did Ms. Amero come in the teachers' room or teachers' lounge?
A My lunch was something like 10:20 or my break, I'm not sure now. And it would have been some time around that time. It wouldn't have been around a normal lunchtime.
Q And you were there at that time?
A I was there for a brief period of time.
Q Do you recall what conversation you had with Ms. Amero when she entered the lounge?
A I recall the conversation.
Q So is it fair to say that you heard her state that she had a problem with her students or her computer?
A Yes, she did.
Q Did she say what kind of problems she was having?
A We all teased each other at the time. It was common to come in and like relax in the teachers' room. At first I thought she was very, very upset. She wasn't the normal Julie, happy-go-lucky, she was upset. We asked, all asked her what was the matter, and she blurted out.
Q Did she ask for any kind of help with this problem?
A She said, does anybody know how to stop pop-up screens.
Q Are you aware if anyone did help her?
A I'm not aware. I ran off. I had an appointment with a little boy to give him a one-on-one tutoring session.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you very much.
THE COURT: Cross-examination.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q So you've known Julie for three years now.
A It's 2007, so if you're going back, I think we met in 2002 at Teachers.
Q Are you friendly, you and her have been friendly for two and a half years?
A Just when we would see each other teaching. It was like a ship passing in the night.
Q Two substitute teachers hooking up and saying hi?
A I never saw her after school or out of school.
Q Okay. Let me ask you this, you are a substitute teacher; you were a substitute teacher at about the same time, correct?
A I started in 2000. I was also working in New York at the same time. So I would work a few days in New York and then come here a few days. I think I preceded her by a few years.
Q Okay. In October of 2004 you were substitute teaching?
A No. 2004, September 10, 2004 I received a permanent position as an English as a second language tutor.
Q Were you tutoring at Kelly Middle School?
A Yes.
Q You weren't subbing on that day?
A Not that day.
Q You were on your break at 11:20?
A I thought it was 10:20. I know I taught three classes before I had a break.
Q Prior to that had you been a substitute teacher for the Middle School?
A Yes, I had been.
Q Had you ever been - let me ask you this, as part of your training as a substitute teacher, are you informed by the Norwich Public School System not to touch anything in
the class?
A Well, there is a problem there. I worked for the Supreme Court of New York during the summer. I never went for training in substitute teaching.
Q You never had been trained as a substitute teacher?
A I was never trained as a substitute teacher.
Q To your knowledge are substitute teachers allowed to touch anything in the classroom; chalk, pencils, anything like that?
A Of course they are.
Q Have you ever turned on and off a computer as a substitute teacher?
A By mistake I did.
Q Have you turned on and off a light switch, monitor, television?
A Yes, absolutely.
Q And to your knowledge as a substitute teacher if you were to turn on and off a light switch, television or a monitor, would you be reprimanded, would you have been in trouble?
A To my knowledge?
Q Yes, to your knowledge.
MR. COCHEO: I will object. She said she was not a full-time substitute teacher up there, and she didn't go through the training, so she does not necessarily know the requirements that were in effect at the tine of this incident. Therefore, I'm going to object.
THE WITNESS: I would think no one would be angry with me for turning off a light.
MR. SMITH: Ma'am.
THE WITNESS: I don't mean to be over-talking.
MR. SMITH : We can't talk.
THE WITNESS: I don't think I understood the question. To my knowledge, no one would tell me not to turn off a light.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q Or a television?
A Or a television.
Q If a television was on, correct, if it was too loud and another teacher were bothered, or if the kids were bothered by a television, correct?
A No, I believe it would be the teacher's responsibility to determine whether or not the television should be on at a given time.
MR. COCHEO: I would renew my objection.
THE WITNESS: I don't understand.
THE COURT: That's okay.
MR. SMITH: I'm not asking her about the training.
THE COURT: Let's start here. What is your question now?
MR. SMITH: My question would be, would it be the teacher's responsibility if there were other inappropriate things coming into the classroom -
THE COURT: You have an objection to that question?
MR. COCHEO: Yes, I do.
THE COURT: What's your objection?
MR. COCHEO: My objection is she testified that she was not a full-time substitute teacher and she worked for the New York Supreme Court and she wasn't advised regarding the specific requirements of substitute teaching, Your Honor, or things she should or shouldn't do.
THE COURT: Regarding whether or not that was part of the training, I will sustain the objection.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q I'm not asking you as part of the training, I'm asking you as a substitute teacher, how long did you sub for?
A
From 2002 until the end of 2004, I mean, the beginning of 2004. In other words, it was that summer break that I became a tutor.
Q How long before that had you substitute taught?
A Well, that would be two and a half years.
Q Were you a substitute teacher in the Norwich School System for two and a half years?
A Prior to that, yes.
Q And you just testified that if a TV were too loud, it would be the teachers' judgment to turn it off?
A I can give you one specific example that would give you the answer to your question.
Q It would be the teachers' responsibility to turn it off, correct?
A If the TV were too loud?
Q Yes.
A Yes.
Q If somebody brought in a pornographic magazine, one of the kids, would it be the teacher's responsibility to get that magazine away from the kid before it circulated through the whole class?
MR. COCHEO: Objection, same basis.
THE COURT: Overruled. I will allow it. I don't think you need training to answer that question.
THE WITNESS: I would take it away.
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q Similarly, if pornographic images were coming in the classroom unfiltered, would you as a substitute teacher say that you are responsible for turning those images off before the kids can have access to it?
A Well, of course.
MR. SMITH: No further questions. Thank you.
THE COURT: Any redirect?
MR. COCHEO: No redirect.
THE COURT: Thank you very much for coming in, ma'am. Anything further for the Defendant's case?
MR. COCHEO: The defense rests.
THE COURT: Does the state have any rebuttal?
MR. SMITH: I may well have. They should be here. I need a short break.
THE COURT: We will take a recess, and then if you have a witness for rebuttal, that is fine. If you don't, then we will do closing arguments. We will resume at 12:30. Is that more than enough time?
MR. SMITH: Absolutely.
(Recess taken)
MR. SMITH: The state would recall Mr. Fain to the stand.
SCOTT FAIN, having been previously sworn, was examined and testified as follows:
THE COURT: Good afternoon. I remind you that you are still under oath.
REBUTTAL EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q I'm going to ask you again to direct your answers to the jury. First off, I'm going to re-show you what has been pre-marked as State's Exhibit 3 as a full exhibit. Do you recall that exhibit?
A I do.
Q And could you hold that up, just hold it so we know we are talking about the exhibit. On the very top of the exhibit do you see a number with a circle around it, correct?
A Correct.
Q And could you go through the various pages there. Do each of those pages have a number? They don't have circles but they all have numbers?
A They all have numbers, yes.
Q By way of example on the very front page with circles around it, what is that number?
A Those would be time sheets that those classes would have met to correspond with the list of students underneath.
Q Just for illustrative purposes, on the first page, what time did that class meet?
A The class session on that particular day would have met at nine o'clock to ten o'clock.
Q And that is just for that one?
A Yes.
Q And obviously there are different times?,
A Correct.
Q Thank you. Mr. Fain, let me go back to the day in question. When was the first time you learned that pornographic images had been accessed on the computer in Mr. Napp's class?
A To the best of my recollection, it was October 20th, the first thing in the morning.
Q That would be the day after the incident happened, correct?
A Correct.
Q And to the best of your knowledge when did you speak with the defendant concerning that incident?
A On the morning of the 20th. That was the first time.
Q Did you call her subsequent to that first meeting?
A I did not.
Q Did you speak to her again subsequent to that first meeting?
A Yes.
Q And when did you speak with her again?
A The afternoon of the 20th.
Q Okay.
A The early evening of the 20th.
Q How did you speak with her then?
A I called her.
Q Okay. And why did you call her then?
A This is going to be an explanation answer.
Q Okay.
A That is the constant rumor or accusation of her use of the computer inappropriately to display pornography continued to come to my attention. I received numerous complaints from parents and/or students regarding it. And I wanted to reiterate, get more information, and she agreed to come back in and meet with me again the following day.
I believe that would have been the 21st or the next school day.
Q So you were trying to figure out what had gone on, is that basically what you' re saying?
A Yes.
Q Did you have her back in again?
A She came back in the following day after we spoke again on the phone.
Q And had you discussed the matter again on that day?
A Yes.
Q Is that the date you then told her that she would not be coming back to your school?
A That's correct.
Q Now, on October 19, 2004 to your knowledge did the defendant ever come to you and tell you that uncontrollable pornographic images were coming in to her classroom?
A No.
Q To the best of your knowledge on that day at the end of the school day did she confront you in the hallway of the school and tell you pornographic images had been coming in to my classroom all day?
A No.
Q To the best of your knowledge - let me put it this way, do you have a cleaning staff?
A Yes, custodial staff.
Q Did anybody come to tell you that hey, in Mr. Napp's room there is a computer that was left turned on that uncontrollable pornography keeps popping up all the time?
A No.
Q At some point in the next day or so you went to that computer again with Mr. Napp, correct?
A I went to the computer one time on the 20th.
Q The day after this incident?
A Correct.
Q And the computer was on, Correct?
A Correct.
Q You were able to look at the screen, correct?,
A Correct.
Q And when you were looking at it, were there any uncontrollable sexually-oriented pop-up ads coming at you on that screen?
A No.
MR. SMITH: No further questions
THE COURT: Cross - examination.
SUR-REBUTTAL EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Mr. Fain, isn't it true you were sending her to another school to teach?
A I'm sorry?
Q Isn't it true you were going to send her to another school to teach?
A More specifically, when do you mean?
Q After the 19th.
A Yes.
Q Are you aware that she complained to Kate O'Boyle about the problems that she was having?
MR. SMITH: Objection, beyond the scope.
THE COURT: I'l1 allow it.
THE WITNESS: Yes.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you very much. Nothing further.
BY MR. SMITH:
Q Who is Kate O'Boyle?
A Kate O'Boyle is the assistant principal.
Q Now, were you standing in the hall way after school with Kate O'Boyle when the defendant came walking up and complained about the pop-ups on the day in question?
A No.
Q Now, there was a question about you sending the defendant to other schools. At that point were you feeling comfortable having her back in your school?
A On the 20th?
Q I should put it in context.
A Yes.
Q When did you send her to another school? What was the defense was talking about?
A I don't have the authority to send her to another school.
Q Okay. Did you send her to another school?
A No. She subbed in the building on the 19th and on the 20th.
Q Okay.
A I called her in to my office on the 20th to go over the initial complaint and what I viewed on the computer.
Q Yes.
A To get her take on it, yes.
Q Yes.
A What she expressed to me sounded reasonable. I sent her back and allowed her to continue to teach.
Q That was the 20th, the day after?
A The morning of the 20th, yes.
Q Okay. Did you further investigate what was going on?
A Yes. Throughout the day I continued to investigate and received numerous complaints and concerns that were coming to light.
Q And after you got all the information, is it at that point you confronted her again?
A I called her that evening or late in the afternoon, and I believe I reached her at her home.
Q And at that point was there an agreement for her to come in and see you?
A Correct.
Q At that point was she already subbing somewhere else, do you know?
A She told me she was subbing somewhere else, but would be near Norwich at another school or in the Norwich area, and she did agree to came by and talk to me.
Q And she did talk to you, correct?
A Yes.
Q Finally on that last time, I believe the 21st, is that when you had all the information available to you, correct?
A Yes. I had enough information that I felt comfortable.
Q At that point when you terminated her from that school, you said don't come back?
A Correct.
MR. SMITH: Thank you. No further questions.
THE COURT : Anything further?
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Isn't it true, Mr. Fain, that at that point when you told her she was not coming back to your school to teach, that you assigned her to another school to teach as a substitute? You just testified before Mr. Smith's recross, that you had done it and now you are saying to him at this point you hadn't done it. I'm asking you, wasn't it true you terminated her, and you assigned her to another school?
A No, sir. I do not have the authority to assign anyone.
Q According to your testimony she wasn't teaching anywhere else after that?
A I couldn't testify to that. I don't know.
Q But you changed your testimony. Can you explain that to us?
MR. SMITH: I believe I have to object to that. He is mischaracterizing the testimony.
THE COURT: What change are you alleging?
MR. COCHEO: I asked Mr. Fain, isn't it true that she was assigned to another school, and he said yes. And I think the transcript will bear that up, Your Honor. Your Honor, I think that was the question.
THE COURT: That he assigned her to another school?
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
THE COURT: Are you saying - I don't recall hearing that. What is the situation on that?
THE WITNESS: I am sorry. What I am trying to explain, Your Honor, I do not have the authority to assign anyone to a different school. I have the authority to request somebody back to my own school, and that I would advise Central Office to that effect.
THE COURT: Right.
THE WITNESS: Sometimes Central Office might call me and say you have this person in your building, can you ask them to go to another building.
THE COURT: Right.
THE WITNESS: But I guess what caused confusion is Ms. Amero was substituting on the 19th when this whole matter occurred, and she was scheduled to substitute again on the 20th. I had her into my office. She explained to me the incident, and by then she was subbing somewhere else. I called her on the evening, I believe, the late afternoon of the 20th. She agreed to come in and meet me. I don't know where she was going. I can't recall. But she did tell me she was subbing somewhere else.
THE COURT: If she were assigned to another school, that would come from Central Office to go somewhere else, not from YOU?
THE WITNESS: Correct. I did not assign her anywhere.
THE COURT: Any questions based on that?
MR. COCHEO: I'm sorry.
MR. COCHEO CONTINUING:
Q So your testimony is you testified that she was substituting on the 19th and 20th?
A Correct.
MR. COCHEO: Thank you.
THE COURT: Mr. Smith, anything based on that?
MR. SMITH: No.
THE COURT: Thank you. Again, sorry you had to come back. We appreciate it. Sorry. Anything further?
MR. SMITH: One more witness. Your Honor, the state would recall Detective Lounsbury.
THE COURT: Good afternoon.
MR. LOUNSBURY: Good afternoon, Your Honor.
THE COURT: You are still under oath.
MR. LOUNSBURY: Okay.
THE COURT: Have a seat.
MARK LOUNSBURY, having been previously sworn, was examined and testified as follows:
REBUTTAL EXAMINATION BY MR. SMITH:
Q Detective Lounsbury, I will ask you to direct your comments to the jury. At some point this morning did my office contact you and ask you to come back in and go look at the computer hard drive?
A Yes.
Q I will ask you this question again. When you access a web page, are there various aspects of that web page that interplay?
A Yes, there are.
Q What are some of those aspects?
A The web page itself is that html. Inside that is Javascript and other tools. The Javascript enables you to do a lot of stuff. You have links to other pages, et cetera. There is more to it than that.
Q And when you view a web page - and there are various links on web pages, correct?
A Yes.
Q Are there any specific characteristics that may occur to a web page when you click on specific link?
A Yes. When you click on a link, again, links are Javascripted, you click on a link, it changes color and then you will get sent to that new address, that new page or site.
Q I will show you what has been pre-marked as State's Exhibit 6 for identification purposes at this time. I have shown it to the defense. Without telling us what is in that document, can you please tell us what that document is.
A This is a web page.
Q And is that a web page taken from the computer in question?
A Yes.
Q And did you actually access that web page today?
A I looked at the web page with the application, the browser application, yes.
Q And did you download that information or make a copy of that information from the copy of the web page that you made?
A Excuse me?
Q A copy of the hard drive that you made.
A This data all comes from the original examination.
Q Okay.
A The additional, the web pages - I viewed the web page viewed in the browser which shows it so you can understand it.
Q So this is information you had already taken down forensically?
A Yes.
Q And you went back and reviewed that information and came up with this page?
A Yes.
Q And this information you hold in your hand is a fair and accurate representation of the information that was on the hard drive on October 19, 2004?
A Yes, it is.
MR. SMITH: Your Honor, at this point we would ask that that be entered as a full exhibit.
MR. COCHEO: It satisfies the evidentiary requirements.
THE COURT: All right. That will be a full exhibit.
(State's Exhibit 6 is marked)
MR. SMITH CONTINUING:
Q Detective, when you actively clicked on a link from the web page, what are one of the detail signs that it was an active click of a link on a web page?
A Again, it would be a different color, it will change colors.
Q That is based on -
A They do that so that you know where you are now. If you have a number of links, they are all the same color, you click a link, it sends you somewhere else. You still have your list of links. You see one that is highlighted, that's where you are now.
Q I'm going to post this on the poster here. Again, this is one of the pages you took from the hard drive originally, correct?
A Yes.
Q I understand you had a limited amount of time; we just contacted you this morning about this, correct?
A Yes.
Q I'm going to come down here and read a couple of website pages. Could you tell me what those are?
A [redacted]
Q Are those indicative of other website pages that originally existed on the computer?
A Those are all links.
Q I will take your attention specifically to this, [redacted]; anything different about that link as opposed to the other links?
A The color, it's red.
Q And to your knowledge, based on your forensic examination of this machine, what may that indicate to you?
A That indicates that that link was actively clicked on and you were then sent to that page.
Q Okay. So a person would actually have to click on the [redacted] link to go to another page, correct?
A. Yes.
Q Were you able to determine the specific page, at what time this page was accessed on that computer in question?
A Yes, sir.
Q And what time was it accessed?
A This was on October 19, 2004.
Q You say '06 here.
A It could be my handwriting. At 9:54:32 a.m.
Q And that is the date, you put 10/19/06, that was 10/19/04.
A Which is attached.
Q Which is attached. We have gone over this before, but when a person goes into a website, various images and the like are attached to that website, correct?
A Yes, sir.
Q Can you help us to understand how an image is actually attached to a website?
A Well, the person could make the website, build your web page with links and with words. You also can add pictures to your web page. And how you do that is you have a picture located on your server. I have my server and I have my pictures, and now I want to add a picture to my web page. When I am building a web page, I say I want a particular picture here and I go here and get this particular picture and put that picture onto it.
Q On the document we just admitted as a full exhibit, were you able to glean whether there were any pictures attached to the web page that was viewed on the computer that day?
A Yes.
Q And could you flip to that picture.
(Witness complying)
Q Based on your examination of the computer, you were able to determine that this specific picture was attached to the web page that was purposefully viewed on that day?
A Yes.
Q And again, at approximately 9:54:32 a.m., correct?
A Yes, sir.
Q Last question, how do you know that?
A The information is in the source code.
Q Right now you are showing what is considered a source code.
A Yes.
Q What does that tell you in general?
A This is the web page.
Q Yes.
A And the web page is the information as to links, Javascripting - actually words that are written and images. And in here it has the name of the image, the type of image, and gives the date and time associated with the image. The web page creation date/time is the same as the image. The image name is Jasmine1.jpg. The image associated to that on that page is Jasmine1.jpg.
Q Your examination of the hard drive, did you learn before October 19, 2004 that there were any pornographic sites that had been accessed?
A There were none in the history.
Q Was there any indication that there were uncontrollable pop-ups?
A There was no evidence.
Q Subsequent to that, to your knowledge, if you had gone to pornographic websites, could spyware have been installed after that fact?
A Once you go to the site, that is most probably the time that you would get infected.
Q After you go to the pornographic website?
A Yes.
MR. SMITH: No further questions. Thank you.
SUR-REBUTTAL EXAMINATION BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Detective Lounsbury, you indicated that, I guess, the coloration in the photograph shown to you by Mr. Smith indicates that links were clicked on, is that correct?
A Yes, sir.
Q When you say indicated, you are not saying a hundred percent?
A I've never seen anything other than that.
Q But you're not saying a hundred percent?
A In my mind it is.
Q Are you saying you're positive?
A Based on my knowledge of how it works, yes.
Q What about the science of it also?
A Which is based on my knowledge of the science.
MR. COCHEO: Just a moment, Your Honor.
(Pause)
Nothing further, Your Honor.
MR. SMITH: The state rests. No further witnesses.
THE COURT: Thanks again. Sorry you had to come back.
MR. LOUNSBURY: My pleasure.
THE COURT: Any further witnesses?
MR. SMITH: No, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Anything further?
MR. COCHEO: Nothing further, Your Honor.
I do have a motion I would like to make outside the presence of the jury.
THE COURT: What we will do then is we will have the jury go to lunch, and at two o'clock we will have the closing arguments and the jury charge. You can be excused. Don't talk about: anything while you are excused. Don't discuss the case.
(Jury excused)
THE COURT: Mr. Cocheo.
MR. COCHEO: I would like to make a motion for Judgment of Acquittal based upon the lack of evidence.
THE COURT : Mr. Smith.
MR. SMITH: I think the evidence taken in the light most favorable to the state would allow a reasonable jury to infer that the defendant was guilty as charged of all the crimes. I think we have met our burden, and the state would object.
THE COURT: Your motion for acquittal is denied. We will recess until two o'clock, at which time we will have the closing arguments and the jury charge.
(Luncheon recess)
MR. COCHEO: For the record, it has come to my attention there has been some inappropriate conduct by the jurors at lunchtime. I would move for a mistrial or voir dire of the particular juror.
THE COURT: We will voir dire the particular juror.
MR. SMITH: Just for clarification, how was it brought to his attention, and what type of
inappropriate conduct.
MR. COCHEO: It was brought to my attention by the defendant's sister, and the conduct was commenting on her status in the case.
THE COURT: This was with another juror.
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
MR. SMITH: The first thing I would ask, I, would ask that that person that said there was
misconduct take the stand.
THE COURT: All right. Call that person. We will do it out of the presence of the jury.
ADRIENE AMERO-MARSHALL, having been duly sworn by the clerk, was examined and testified as follows:
BY MR. COCHEO:
Q Ms. Amero, can you tell us what you observed at lunchtime?
A Yes. I was at the Harp Dragon. I was having lunch. I was standing waiting to be seated to have lunch. When I looked across I saw the jurors who were also having lunch at the same establishment. While I was standing there I heard them specifically speaking about this case.
Q What did you hear?
A I heard them say she has teacher training, she knows better.
Q How many jurors were there, approximately?
A At least six, and I can identify the people who were speaking.
Q Can you do that now, please.
A Yes, I can. The gentleman who sits here with the plaid striped shirt, very short hair. Sitting across from him was the young lady who has a kind of purplish shirt on. Sitting next to him was another juror on the end was a juror who has the grayish, light gray shirt on.
MR. COCHEO: Your Honor, based upon that, Mr. Smith can
correct me, but we need to call the jury panel in and examine them one at a time to see what impact it will have on the decisional process.
MR. SMITH: I would agree. One quick question.
BY MR. SMITH:
Q The jurors, could you hear them actually talking?
A Yes.
MR. SMITH: I think based on the testimony, we will have to talk to the jurors to make sure it's fair and impartial.
MR. COCHEO: I don't want my secretary to take the stand, but she heard the same thing.
THE COURT: I will disregard that. I can go on the testimony of this one witness. You can step down. Bring the jurors out.
THE MARSHAL: The jurors are not here.
THE COURT: I will take a brief recess until they get back.
(Recess taken)
Do you want to bring the whole panel at once or one at a time?
MR. SMITH: I think we need to let the panel know.
THE COURT: Bring out the whole panel.
(Jury returns)
THE COURT: Good afternoon. We have a situation here where it has been brought to the Court's attention that it's possible that certain jurors were discussing the case during lunch. You know you are not supposed to discuss the case until after closing arguments and the jury charge. So what has to happen in a situation like this is we are going to have you go back in and call you in one at a time and ask if that, in fact, did happen, and we will discuss it at that point. So before we can get to the next phase, we need to address this issue. So if you will go back in, we will call you back in one at a time.
(Jury excused)
MR. SMITH: My suggestion, and obviously the defense should have a say, I think we should probably talk to all of them.
MR. COCHEO: I think we should.
MR. SMITH: And so should the Court. Ask them if they spoke or if they heard somebody
speak and how that effects them in deliberating in this case.
THE COURT: That's what we will do, one at a time in no particular order.
(Juror brought out)
THE COURT: Ma'am, during lunch did you have any conversation regarding this case with other jurors?
THE JUROR : No.
THE COURT: So that you haven't had any discussions regarding the case and you are willing to listen to the closing arguments and the charge that I give you on the law to make a decision on this case?
THE JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: All right. You can go back in.
MR. COCHEO: Did you hear any discussions?
THE COURT: Did you hear any discussion regarding this case by another juror?
THE JUROR: No. I went home for lunch.
THE COURT: You can go back in.
(Juror brought out)
THE COURT: Did you discuss the case during lunch?
THE JUROR: No.
THE COURT: Did you hear any discussion about the case by other jurors during lunch?
THE JUROR : No.
THE COURT: And you're willing to listen, you are an alternate, are you willing to listen to the jury charge?
THE JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: And listen to closing arguments prior to formulating any kind of decision if you get to deliberations?
THE JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: Anything else you want to ask, Mr. Smith?
MR. SMITH: No.
THE COURT: Thank you.
(Juror brought out)
THE COURT: Did you discuss the case during lunch?
THE JUROR: No, we did not.
THE COURT: And did you hear other jurors discussing the case during lunch?
THE JUROR: Absolutely not.
THE COURT: And are you willing to listen to the closing arguments and the jury charge by me about the charges prior to formulating any decision?
THE JUROR: Yes.
MR. COCHEO: I would ask to make an inquiry to where lunch was had.
THE COURT: Where did you have lunch?
THE JUROR: Over at the Harp & Dragon I think it's called.
THE COURT: So you didn't participate or hear a discussion regarding the facts of the case?
THE JUROR: No.
THE COURT: All right. We will call in the next juror.
(Juror brought out)
THE COURT: Did you discuss the case with other jurors during lunch?
THE JUROR: I did not.
THE COURT: And did you hear other jurors discuss the case?
THE JUROR: No, we weren't.
THE COURT: They weren't discussing the case?
THE JUROR: No.
THE COURT: And you understand that you can't formulate a decision regarding this case until after you hear closing arguments and my charge to the jury regarding the actual law, right?
THE JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: And you're willing to do that, is that right?
THE JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: Where did you have lunch?
THE JUROR: At the Irish Harp & Dragon.
THE COURT: Any other questions?
MR. SMITH: No.
(Juror brought out)
THE COURT: Sir, did you discuss the case during lunch with anyone?
THE JUROR: No, ma' am.
THE COURT: And did you hear any other jurors discussing the case during lunch?
THE JUROR: No. The six of us sat down and we made it a point not to discuss it.
THE COURT: And where did you have lunch?
THE JUROR: The Irish place across here.
THE COURT: And you understand that you are not to formulate a decision regarding how you feel about this case until after the closing arguments and the Court gives you the law on the case. Do you understand that?
THE JUROR: Yes, ma'am.
THE COURT: And you are willing and able to do that?
THE JUROR: Yes, ma' am.
THE COURT: Thank you.
(Juror brought out)
THE COURT: Have a seat. Did you discuss the, case during lunch?
THE JUROR: Absolutely did not, Judge.
THE COURT: And did you hear any discussions among other jurors discussing the case?
THE JUROR: I did not, Judge.
THE COURT: And where did you have lunch?
THE JUROR: The Harp & Dragon.
THE COURT: And do you understand that you are not to formulate a decision on the case until you have listened to the closing arguments and the law given by the Court, do you understand that?
THE JUROR: I'm a hundred percent clear.
THE COURT: You are a hundred percent clear and willing to do this?
THE JUROR: Yes, ma'am.
THE COURT: All right. Thank you.
(Juror brought out )
THE COURT: Did you discuss the case during lunch?
THE JUROR: No.
THE COURT: Did you hear other people discussing the case during lunch?
THE JUROR: No, I did not.
THE COURT: Other jurors, I mean.
THE JURORS : No, I didn't.
THE COURT: And where did you have lunch?
THE JUROR: The Harp & Dragon.
THE COURT: And you understand that before you formulate a decision regarding the case, you still have to listen to the closing arguments and the law given to you by the Court and this is what is called a jury charge. Do you understand that?
THE JUROR: I do.
THE COURT: And are you willing and able to do that?
THE JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: Thank you.
(Juror brought out )
THE COURT: Did you discuss the case during lunch?
THE JUROR: No. I went by myself to lunch in town.
THE COURT: Did you hear other jurors discussing the case?
THE JUROR: No, ma' am.
THE COURT: And you know that you have to listen to the closing arguments still and the law given to you before you can make a decision on the case?
THE JUROR: Yes. That is correct.
THE COURT: Are you willing and able to do that?
THE JUROR: Yes, I am.
THE COURT: Thank you.
MR.
SMITH: Judge, for the record, I will stipulate that you spoke individually to each of the individual jurors and also to the alternate jurors, just for the record, so it's known we did speak to each.
THE COURT: I have spoken to each and every juror and admonished them regarding that they are not allowed to make a decision regarding the case if, in fact, they had such discussions, but all of whom denied having those conversations.
MR. COCHEO: That is my problem. Assuming that my client's sister has credibility, if she has credibility and she did hear something, now the jury is going to be impacted by this inquiry. It infects the jury.
THE COURT: Well, Mr. Cocheo, I am afraid that was the procedure that we needed to follow to make the inquiry regarding this. And if in fact I don't know who you are expecting to believe, but I don't know your client's sister -- I'm not saying anything about her credibility or the jurors' credibility, but I questioned them and I informed them on the record, each and every one, including the alternates, that they are not to make a decision on the case until after the closing arguments and the charge to the jury by me. And for that reason we are going to proceed because I don't feel - I don't think there was anything considered irreparable.
MR. SMITH: Can we take a five minute recess to talk about this?
THE COURT: Why?
MR. SMITH: Just a five minute recess to talk about this.
THE COURT: Meet me in Janice's office right now. We will recess for five minutes.
(Recess taken)
THE COURT: We had a discussion regarding this. We had a charging conference during the lunch break also. It was a minor change in one of the charges that will be going to the jury. Other than that, there is no objection to the standard jury charge, is that right?
MR. COCHEO: Well, I want to take exception to your refusal to mistry the case because of the jury misconduct.
THE COURT: You are asking for a mistrial and I am denying that based on the voir dire of each juror. About the charging conference -
MR. SMITH: That is fine. I know we talked about that. The charges, I think the state would agree with that and also we just talked about how it would cover this incident. So I have no objection.
THE COURT: Bring in the jury.
(Jury returns)
THE COURT: You will hear closing arguments now. We will start with the state, as I told you earlier. Mr. Smith.
CLOSING ARGUMENTS
MR. SMITH: Thank you, Your Honor. Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen. I'm glad you obviously all paid attention. I know some of this was kind of tedious to listen to and go through. The state is required to prove certain elements of the crime. Basically that is on that computer there was pornographic images. We had to show that. We had to show that. I was kind of watching out of the side of my eye. What I ask you to do is I am going to talk a little bit, and the defense will talk a little bit, and I will get back to you and talk a little bit again at the very end. What I will ask you to do, when I am talking and when the defense is talking, and when I come back, I'm going to ask you to focus on the facts of the case. The case is not about whether you liked the attorney, you feel sorry for the attorney, you feel sorry for anybody involved in here. It's not about whether you like me or I did a good job, bad job, anything. What it is about is the facts that came forward in this case, and I believe what came forward will show - this is what you learned. You learned that the defendant, Ms. Amero, was a substitute teacher at the Kelly Middle School. On the date in question, on October 19, 2004, she was substituting in Mr. Napp's class. During the course of that substitution she accessed pornography, and that's the state's contention, she accessed pornography and she accessed it in such a way on the computer screen that the minor children - I don't think there's any contention about them all being under the proper age of sixteen, they were all between eleven and thirteen at the time - had access to that. I think it's clear that Ms. Amero was at the computer the whole day. I believe all the testimony the state presented shows that the only person who had access to that computer that day was Mr. Napp in the morning who turned it on to the defendant, who told the defendant she could access it. And the defendant and all the kids said that, the other adult said that, Mr. Napp said that. The only person that had access to that computer once Mr. Napp left was the defendant. Don't get misled by facts that aren't important, that don't go to the salient issues, the important issues at the trial here. The state is required to prove that the defendant acted in such a way that it was likely to cause injury to the children, not the fact that the children were injured, but just that the situation existed; that it was likely that the children would be injured. If you listen to all the facts, if you go over what was said, what was shown, I think you will come to that conclusion. I will let the defense speak and then I will come back in a few minutes and finish up. Focus in on the facts so you can apply those facts to the law when the judge puts them forth. Thank you.
THE COURT: Mr. Cocheo.
MR. COCHEO: First of all, I want to thank each and every one of you for the time you spent here. You are away from your families, your children, your lives, your jobs, your home, and you come here almost as volunteers, and we appreciate that. It's very stressful sitting and listening to people like me talk and hobble around the courtroom, but we all appreciate it. I would like to address some of the issues, if I may. One of the elements required is an act. As you recall the evidence, and it's your recollection that counts, when my client walked into the classroom the computer was already on. With respect to her intent, the evidence, as I recall, is that every time a student came near the computer, she pushed them away; even semi-slapped some kid or turned her body to block the computer screen. So her intention was not to impair the morals or to do anything improper to the children, but more to protect the children. And I would ask you to consider that. Now, the state has the burden to prove that the morals were impaired. We have seen this kind of pornography all over. On public television you see pornography. You never saw it a hundred years ago. You see it all over the screens and wherever else. So whether or not their morals were impaired is a question. Three out of four students that came in and testified couldn't even identify her. Our expert testified, and I would ask you to pay some attention to him. I am, quite frankly, computer illiterate. He is the one that knows computers. He said a lot of things about pop-ups occurring, which is an occurrence which can occur at any time through no one's fault, through no one's intention. I asked my wife, who is a teacher, does it happen on her computer, she says it happens all the time. Now, the state has the burden here. They get two arguments. The state will come back again. He gets to argue again. I only get one argument. You say so what? They have the burden of proof, to prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt. Now, I asked you all, say you heard this whole case, sat and deliberated and you said to yourself, you know, she probably did something wrong, but I'm not convinced beyond all reasonable doubt; would you let her walk away a free woman right out those doors? And every one of you said you would. And I would ask you to recall that. We are lucky in Connecticut also, because in Connecticut we select jurors one at a time. In most states you do a panel voir dire. In Connecticut you do it one at a time, and we get to know our jurors, and I think we have a good jury and an intelligent jury here. And I want to thank you once again for the time you spent. I want to apologize for anything that I have done to offend any of you. So thank you once again.
THE COURT: Mr. Smith.
MR. SMITH: Your job is to apply the facts presented to the law as the Judges give to you. Mr. Cocheo said at one point the state is required to prove that the morals were impaired. I don't believe that is what the law says, and listen to what the law says. That a situation was created that is likely to impair; not in fact that the morals were impaired. The state is not required to prove that. The state is only required to prove that a situation existed likely to impair the morals of a minor. And I am going to touch on this in the abstract and say part and parcel of his argument would be that showing eleven, twelve and thirteen year old children hardcore pornographic images would not be likely to impair their morals. That is something that you need to make a determination on. I would take you back to what [redacted], the final child witness that we had, who at the time he had access and was shown these images made the mistake, I should say, between it being a bathing suit and being skimpy lingerie, which he now knows it was. I think that goes to the type of children that were involved, the age, and whether or not that situation was likely to impair their morals. Also, the defense touched on the fact that his wife said certain things. This is about the evidence presented here at the trial. Whatever is touched upon that happened outside the course of the trial is not evidence, and obviously not for you to take in to account. Again, just focus in on what was presented during the course of the trial. There are two issues here that the state is going to discuss, and the first issue is whether the defendant intentionally accessed those websites. I think the evidence is very strong, very clear cut that the defendant was the only person that had access to that computer; there was no pornography before she got there; there was no pornography accessed after she was gone. There was no indication of pop-up ads on this computer directly after she was there. No custodians went in. Mr. Fain himself went in and spoke and said no, I saw the computer, and there were no pop-ups. That was in rebuttal. I think it's very clear that that just didn't happen, pop-ups randomly popping up over and over and over during the course of the day. I will get back to this in a second. What I point out is that the defense's own expert indicated that if redirects were to come through, it would not leave an address on the computer. I believe he stated it up there. You have to type it in, and that is when the address comes in. You don't get a mark in the temporary Internet folder unless you actively go to that site. I believe I made that clear with him. I would ask that you look at State's Exhibit 4, the Internet sites visited on the log, and you will see specific sites about [redacted], or [redacted], [redacted]. I believe there is also later in the day [redacted]. Based on the testimony of the defense's witness, that information could only get there if she actively accessed those sites. I'm also going to bring in Mr. Fain who testified, and there is in the temporary Internet files evidence which is State's Exhibit 1, the temporary Internet files directly related to what the defense attorney stated. You would have to actively click to get at these sites. [redacted] I would ask you to go through that, correlate that with the time, correlate that with what their witness said about you have to actively physically click on it to get to the site. Finally, as you recall I brought Detective Lounsbury back in. Exhibit 6 hopefully is trying to explain the difference in color as to the Javascript elements which he clicked on. Some of us using our common sense understand this; when you click on a web page it transfers you over. And that changes to show that you actually accessed that page. Take this in to account for intent; that the defendant purposely accessed those websites. I think the evidence is overwhelming that she did purposely access those websites and she should be found guilty of all of those counts by the information the state put forward. All of the minor children, there were four kids, there are four children that said they viewed pornography, including who said that he was slapped or pushed away from the computer to the point where he was slightly injured. They accessed or saw these websites. It's the state's contention that she purposefully went to these websites, was sitting there all day, that is the evidence, viewing the Internet. However, for the sake of argument, let's go with the defense's proposition that this pornography was being filtered in, pumped out, boom, boom, boom, uncontrollable by her. And what you have to do is apply that to the law. Did that create a situation where the morals of the children were likely to be impaired? What did she have to do to stop that? Quite frankly, she could have turned off the computer. She testified she couldn't turn off the computer because she is not supposed to touch anything. She could have turned off the monitor, which she chose not to do, or she could have just draped something over the monitor or covered the monitor. We know that the images on there were offensive, because the defendant herself said they were offensive and of a sexual nature, and the children shouldn't have viewed these images. We know they were there because the children were talking about it, and that is how it came to her attention, and the defendant said that. We also know she could have stopped it from happening, and the children never would have seen it. The substitute teacher also said absolutely, you stop this information, you stop this from coming through. She clearly should not have allowed this to happen. At one point she testified pornography is coming up on the screen and she leaves the room open for anybody to see it. She walks away. It keeps coming up. Kids are, as we have testified, coming up to there. There are rumors all over the school, and we don't know at what point the defendant allegedly started telling, hey, this is happening to my computer. We know it's after the kids saw it and the kids are talking about it. I think the evidence is clear on both sides; on the state's case, and quite frankly with the defense's case, that she is guilty of all the charges. I think when you apply those facts to the law, you can go back and discuss it, and I think you will come back with a verdict of guilty on each count. Thank you.
MR. SMITH: May counsel approach the bench please.
THE COURT: Yes.
(Bench conference)
JURY CHARGE
You have heard the evidence presented in the case and the arguments of counsel, and it becomes my duty to instruct you as to the law which is to be applied to the facts of this case. It is exclusively the function of the Court to state the rules of law which govern the case, with instructions as to how you are to apply them. It is your obligation to accept the law as I state it. You must follow all the instructions and not single out some and ignore others; they are all equally important.
You are the sole judges of the facts in the case. It is your duty to find the facts. You are to recollect and weigh the evidence and form your own conclusions as to what the ultimate facts are. You may not go outside the evidence introduced in court to find the facts. That means that you may not resort to guesswork, conjecture or suspicion, and you must not be influenced by any personal likes or dislikes, opinions, prejudices or sympathy. The actions of the Court during the trial in ruling on motions or Objections by counsel or in comments to counsel or in questions to witnesses, or in setting forth the law in these instructions are not to be taken by you as any indication of the Court's opinion as to how you determine the issues of fact. If the Court has expressed or intimated any opinion as to the facts, you are not bound by that opinion. What the verdict shall be is your sole and exclusive duty and responsibility. If I refer to any of the evidence in this charge, and I may do so, it will be simply for the purpose of illustration and clarification, and you are not to understand that I intend to emphasize any evidence I mention or to limit your consideration to that evidence alone. If I omit reference to any evidence, you will supply it from your recollection. If I incorrectly state any of the evidence, you will correct my error because it is your province to review the evidence and to determine the facts established by it. In deciding the guilt or innocence of the accused, you should not concern yourselves with any possible punishment to be meted out in the event of a conviction. Nor should you be influenced by any sympathy for the accused, the accused family or for any other person who might be in any way affected by your decision.
In this case, as in all criminal prosecutions, the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. That means that at the moment when the defendant was presented before you for trial he stood before you free of any bias, prejudice or burden arising from his position as the accused; that nothing you might know or guess about his past should be considered by you at all. Insofar as you are concerned, she was then innocent and he remains innocent until such time as the evidence and matters produced here in the course of the trial satisfy you beyond a reasonable doubt that she is guilty. The burden to prove the defendant guilty of the crime with which she is charged is upon the state. The defendant does not have to prove that she is innocent. This means that the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt each and every element necessary to constitute the crimes charged. Whether the burden of proof resting upon the state is sustained depends not on the number witnesses, nor on the quantity of the testimony, but on the nature and quality of the testimony. Please bear in mind that one witness' testimony is sufficient to convict someone if it establishes all the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. The state can sustain the burden of proof only if the evidence before you establishes the existence of every element of the crimes charged beyond a reasonable doubt.
What does that mean, beyond a reasonable doubt? The phrase reasonable doubt has no technical meaning. You can arrive at the real meaning of it by emphasizing the word "reasonable." A reasonable doubt means a doubt based upon reason and common sense. It's a doubt which is something more than a guess or surmise. It's not a conjecture or fanciful doubt, or a doubt raised by one who questions simply for the sake of argument. It is not the situation springing from feelings of sympathy or pity for the accused or members of his family or other persons who might in any way be affected by your verdict. A reasonable doubt, in other words, is real doubt, a honest doubt, a doubt which has its foundation in the evidence or lack of evidence. It is one for which you can, in your own mind, conscientiously give a reason. A reasonable doubt is the kind of doubt that would cause reasonable persons like yourself to hesitate to act in matters of importance. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is proof which precludes every reasonable hypothesis except guilt and is inconsistent with any other reasonable conclusion. Now, of course, absolute certainty in the affairs of life is almost never attainable, and the law does not require absolute certainty on the part of the jury before you return a verdict of guilty. The state does not have to prove guilt beyond all doubt or to a mathematical absolute certainty. What law does require, however, is that after hearing all the evidence, if there is something in that evidence or lack of evidence which leaves in the minds of the jury as reasonable men and women a reasonable doubt about the guilt of the accused, then the accused must be given the benefit of the doubt and acquitted. On the other hand, if you find that the proven facts do establish the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt, then the proper verdict would be guilty.
The evidence from which you are to decide the facts consists of the sworn testimony of witnesses; both direct and cross-examination, regardless of who called that witness; the exhibits that have been received in to evidence; and any stipulations, that is, facts to which the lawyers have agreed. In reaching your verdict you should consider all the testimony in evidence, all the exhibit s received in to evidence. Certain things are not evidence and you may not consider them in deciding what the facts are. These include arguments and statements by the lawyers. The lawyers are not witnesses. What they have said in their closing arguments and at other times is intended to help you interpret the evidence, but it's not evidence. If the facts as you remember them differ from the way the lawyers have stated them, your memory of the facts control. Questions and objections by the lawyers. Attorneys have a duty to their clients to object when they believe a question is improper under the rules of evidence. You should not be influenced by the objections or the Court's ruling on that evidence. Anything you may have seen or heard when the court was not in session, that would not be evidence. You are to decide the case solely on the evidence received at trial. The document called the information that I read to you, I believe at least twice, you will have with you deliberation room, that is the formal manner of accusing a person of crimes, and that is not considered evidence in the case. You don't consider the information as an evidence of guilt of the defendant or draw any inference of guilt just by the charges themselves.
As I told you before there are two, generally two types of evidence; direct evidence and circumstantial evidence. I am going to discuss the differences between these two. Direct evidence of an event is the testimony of an eyewitness who comes in to court and says that he saw an event happen. Circumstantial evidence of an event is the testimony of a witness, or evidence by exhibits, as to the existence of certain facts or the happening of other events from which the jury may logically conclude that the event in question did happen. I am going to give you another example of the difference between direct and circumstantial evidence. Assume that it is a December night and it is around 11:30 p.m., and you are preparing to go to bed. You look out the window and see it is snowing. You wake up in the morning and come to court and testify that at approximately 11:30 p.m. the night before it was snowing in the area of your house. This is direct evidence of the fact that it snowed a t 11:30 p.m. the night before. You saw it snowing and you came in and testified to that fact. Now, assume that is another December night, the weather is clear and there is no snow on the ground. You go to bed and when you wake up the next morning you look out the window and see snow on the ground and foot prints across your front lawn. You come in to court that morning and testify to those facts; the evidence that the night before there was no snow on the ground and this morning there was snow on the ground and foot prints in the snow across your front lawn is direct evidence, your eyewitness observation of those facts. That direct evidence is itself circumstantial evidence of the fact that sometime during the night while you were sleeping it snowed, and sometime thereafter someone walked across your front lawn. The only practical difference between direct and circumstantial evidence is that when you have direct evidence of the commission of a crime, the only thing the jury has to pass upon is the credibility, the believability of the direct testimony given; whereas with circumstantial evidence the jury first has to determine whether the happening of those events or the existence of those facts leads them logically to the conclusion that the other facts existed and the other events occurred and ultimately the crime was committed the accused. There is no reason to be prejudiced against circumstantial evidence simply because it is circumstantial evidence. You make decisions on the basis of circumstantial evidence in the everyday affairs of life. There is no reason why decisions on circumstantial evidence should not be made in the courtroom. In fact, proof by circumstantial evidence may be as conclusive as would be the testimony of witnesses speaking on the basis of their observation. In passing upon the guilt of an accused person on the basis of circumstantial evidence you must be satisfied first that certain facts or circumstances exist, and second, that those facts or circumstances do beyond a reasonable doubt lead you to conclude that the crime was committed by the accused. Unless the existence of those facts and circumstances leads you, as reasonable men and women, to only one conclusion, namely that the accused is guilty, then, of course, you would not be justified in finding the defendant guilty. You may draw reasonable inferences from the established facts in this case. The inference which you draw, however, must not be from a guess upon the evidence but they must be from a fact or facts which the evidence has established. In drawing inferences from established facts you should use your reason and common sense. The inferences which you draw must be logical and reasonable and any facts, whether inferred or proven directly which is essential to the proof of an element of the crime charged must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
I will now discuss the subject of credibility which means the believability of testimony. In deciding what the facts are, you must consider all the evidence. In doing this you must decide what testimony to believe and which testimony not to believe. You may believe all, none or any part of any witness' testimony. In making that decision you may take into account a number of factors including the following: Was the witness able to see or hear or know the things about which that witness testified? How well was the witness able to recall and describe those things? What was the witness' manner of testifying? Did the witness have an interest in the outcome of the case or any bias or prejudice concerning the matter involving the case? How reasonable was the witness' testimony considered in
light of all the evidence in the case? Was the witness' testimony contradicted by what that witness had said or done at another time or by the testimony of other witnesses or by other evidence? If you think that a witness deliberately testified falsely in some respect, you should carefully consider whether you should rely upon any of his testimony. In deciding whether or not to believe a witness, keep in mind that people sometimes forget things. You need to consider, therefore, whether a contradiction is an innocent lapse of memory or an intentional falsehood, and that may depend on whether it has to do with an important factor was only a small detail. You have observed the witnesses. The credibility, believability of the witnesses and the weight to be given their testimony are matters entirely within your hands. It is for you alone to determine their credibility. Whether or not you find the fact proven is not to be determined by the number of witnesses testifying for or against it; it's the quality, not the quantity of the testimony which should be controlling. Nor is it necessarily so that because a witness testifies to a fact and no one contradicts it, you are bound to accept that fact as true. The credibility of the witness and the truth of the fact is for you to determine. As you recall, there was testimony here from a police officer. The testimony of a police officer is entitled to no special or exclusive sanctity merely because it comes from a police officer. A police officer who takes the witness stand subjects his testimony to the same test that any other witness does. You should not automatically believe or disbelieve them merely because they are police officers. You should recall their demeanor here on the stand, consider their training, if any, in the field in which they gave evidence, their manner of testimony, the substance of their testimony, their capacity for observing facts and relating them to you accurately. You should weigh and balance their testimony as fully as you weigh the testimony of any witness.
Now, the defendant, Ms. Amero, was charged with four counts of Risk of Injury to a Minor, in violation of Connecticut General Statute 53-21(a)(1), which insofar as it applies in this case provides as follows: Any person who willfully or unlawfully causes or permits any child under the age of sixteen to be placed in such a situation that the morals of that child are likely to be impaired shall be punished. The intent of this statute is to protect the health, morals and well-being of children.
To find the defendant guilty of willfully or unlawfully causing or permitting any child under sixteen to be placed in a situation in which their morals are likely to be impaired, the State must have proven the following elements beyond a reasonable doubt: One, that at the time of the incident the children in question were under sixteen years old. Two, Ms. Amero willfully or unlawfully caused or permitted the victims to be placed in a situation that was likely to impair their morals. So the conduct to be punished must involve victims under sixteen years old, and the conduct must have placed the children in a situation in which their morals were likely to be impaired. This is the conduct that is deliberately indifferent to, acquiesces in, or creates a situation that is basically opposite to the child's moral welfare, inimical, or basically opposite to the children's moral welfare. Willful means deliberately or intentionally. Unlawfully means without legal right or justification; causing or permitting a situation to arise when the defendant, Ms. Amero, had such control or right of control over the children that the defendant could have prevented from happening.
The state must have proven that the children's morals were likely to be impaired, and likely means probable or in all probability as used here. Morals means good morals; living, acting and thinking in accordance with those principles or precepts that are commonly accepted amongst us as right and decent. As for intent, the state must have proven the defendant had the general intent to perform these acts, in other words, her behavior, if you find that she did, in fact, access these websites commonly referred to as pornographic, or that the pornographic websites were being accessed and the defendant was indifferent to, acquiesced in or created a situation that would be indifferent to or opposite to the children's moral welfare, and that the children were under sixteen years old were exposed to these websites, that would be general intent.
The state does not have to have proven that she intended the precise harm or result which may have happened. In other words, I know this is a difficult concept here. General intent is at least an intention to make a bodily movement which constitutes an act which the crime requires. The behavior had to be voluntary. Was this behavior which would be accessing websites in question in a seventh grade classroom where there was pornography present likely to impair the morals of these children.
To summarize, for the defendant to be guilty of Risk of Injury to a Minor, the state must have proven beyond a reasonable doubt, once again, that at the time of the incident the victims were under sixteen years old; that the defendant did act in a way likely to impair the morals of these children; the defendant had an intent to perform those acts.
If you find that the state has proven beyond a reasonable doubt those elements that I have described to you of Risk of Injury to a Minor, then you will find the defendant guilty. If on the other hand, you find that the state has not proven the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, then you will find the defendant Not guilty.
What a person's intention or knowledge has been is usually a matter to be determined by inference. No one is able to testify that they looked in to another's mind and saw there in a certain purpose or intention or a certain knowledge to do harm to another. The only way a jury can ordinarily determine what a person's purpose, intention or knowledge was at any given time, is by determining what that person's conduct was and what the circumstances were surrounding that conduct and from that infer what that intention or purpose was.
As I have said, the law is given to you by the Court. It is your duty now at this time to accept the law as given to you by the Court. This is the time for you as jurors to discuss the case among yourselves now that you have been given the law and heard the closing arguments. It is your duty to determine the facts and you apply the facts determined by you to the law given to you by the Court and render a verdict of guilty or Not guilty. You must consider with minds unswerved from your duty by any kind of passion or sentimentality and consider your verdict by a careful consideration by the facts as disclosed by the evidence and apply the case law to those facts. The accused justly relies upon you to consider her claims and to consider carefully all the evidence and find her not guilty if the facts and ... [an entire transcript page that should appear here was misprinted in the PDF source] ... last analysis, it is your individual duty to make up your own mind and to decide the case on the basis of your judgment and conscience.
With that I will have you retire to the jury room. Do not begin deliberations until you have selected one of your members to be the foreperson and you receive the information and all the exhibits.
You must render a separate verdict as to each count; each of the counts of the information. Inform the judicial marshal when you have reached your verdict, but don't tell him what the verdict is. You will be asked to return to the courtroom where your foreperson will announce the verdict orally in response to questions from the courtroom clerk, and the rest of the panel will be asked if they agree with the verdict. I will now ask that the alternate jurors do stay here in the court and the rest of you go into the back jury room where the clerk will bring in the exhibits and the information.
(Regular jurors excused)
First of all, I thank you for your attention to the case. Your willingness to serve as alternates is a vital part of this process. Although I'm going to release you now, there is still a chance that something can happen to one of the jurors before a verdict gets reached. If that were to happen, you would be called back and they would have to start deliberations again. That is why you hear the whole jury charge right up to the point of deliberations so you will be ready to participate if that became necessary. And so you are welcome to stay or go home. I just want to thank you, and I want you to know that your role was greatly appreciated. And you have that option at this time, and I want to thank
you. I also know that we have a certificate for your participation, and the clerk will be giving that to you. Just remember, there is a chance you can be called back, so don't discuss the case with anyone or among yourselves until you have heard the verdict has been rendered. Any questions?
THE ALTERNATE: If we stay, where would we sit?
THE COURT: It would be in the audience, or you could call later to see what happened. It's up to you. Some people like to be released, but some people do stay. I will take a recess. There may be questions from the jury. If the jury requests to hear anything, we have to do it here in court.
MR. SMITH: I'll leave it set up.
THE COURT: But all the documents will be given to them.
MR. COCHEO: For the record, the juror in the first row, third from the right is the one that had been discussing the case.
THE COURT: Was she someone I went through and said -
MR. COCHEO: Yes, it was a man.
THE COURT: I thought you meant it was the woman. He was one I did canvass.
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
THE COURT: And I admonished regarding this?
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
THE COURT: Thank you for that information. We will stand in recess.
(Recess taken)
(Deliberation commences)
THE COURT: There was a question from the jury. Shall we bring out the jury? The question - they are requesting the written statement from the minors, but those were for identification only, and that is what I will be telling them.
(Jury returns)
THE COURT: I got your question about the written statement from the minors. Those written statements were not entered as full exhibits, they were for identification only, so they are not part of the full exhibits that you will have with you. If there is a further question based on what I am telling you, you can ask that. That's the reason you don't have those documents because they weren't full exhibits. So you will be going by the testimony that you heard from those minors. If you have other questions, feel free to send
it out too. That's the reason.
(Deliberations continue)
THE COURT: We have a request for a transcript of all of the minors' testimony. I don't know if that means that they want it all. You will be reading testimony. I don't know if they want all of the testimony.
(Jury returns)
THE COURT: Did you want all the minors' testimony or was there a specific person?
THE FOREPERSON: We were unclear which minor was making which charge. We were looking to have actually what they stated as what they saw.
THE COURT: What will happen, how it works is that the Court Reporter will read what she has. She has a special machine and will read the testimony of each of the minors.
A JUROR: That is going to be what the defense and the prosecutor had to say as well as what the minors said?
THE COURT: On direct is what they said they saw. Is that what you want; what they say they saw? You really only need the direct, is that what you're requesting?
A JUROR: We are looking for what they stated they saw.
(Court reporter reads back requested testimony)
MR. SMITH: For the record, I noticed that the dictation was not being taken during the read back. The defense can agree with me that the jury specifically asked for that one individual for read back, and the jury specifically asked the Court for [redacted] and not the other witnesses being read.
THE COURT: That's correct. Would you agree with that?
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
MR. SMITH: That wasn't being taken down.
THE COURT: I appreciate that.
(Deliberations continue)
THE COURT: I understand there is a verdict.,
Bring out the jury.
(Jury return)
VERDICT
THE COURT: I understand we have a verdict. Would the foreperson please identify himself or herself.
THE FOREPERSON: James Robson.
THE CLERK: Mr. Foreperson, in the first count charging the defendant with the crime of Risk of Injury to a child, in violation of Connecticut General Statute 53-21 (a) (1), do you find the defendant guilty or not guilty?
THE FOREPERSON: Guilty.
THE CLERK: In the second count charging the defendant with the crime of Risk of Injury to a Child, in violation of Connecticut General Statute 53-21 (a) (1), is the defendant guilty or not guilty?
THE FOREPERSON: Guilty.
THE CLERK: In the third count charging the defendant with the crime of Risk of Injury to a Child, in violation of Connecticut General Statute 53-21 (a) (1), is the defendant guilty or not guilty?
THE FOREPERSON: Guilty.
THE CLERK: In the fourth count charging the defendant with the crime of Risk of Injury to a Child, in violation of Connecticut General Statute 53-21 (a) (1), is the defendant guilty or not guilty?
THE FOREPERSON: Guilty.
THE CLERK: Your Honor, may the verdict be accepted and recorded?
THE COURT: Yes, it may. Would you like to poll the jury?
MR.. COCHEO: Yes, please.
THE CLERK: Is it your verdict that the defendant, Julie Amero, is guilty for the first count, Risk of Injury to a Child?
A Yes.
THE CLERK: Is it your verdict that the defendant, Julie Amero, is guilty of Risk of Injury in four counts?
A Yes.
THE CLERK: Is it your verdict that the defendant, Julie Amero, is guilty of four counts of Risk of Injury to a Child?
A Yes.
THE CLERK: Is it your verdict that the defendant, Julie Amero, is guilty of four counts of Risk of Injury to a Child?
A Yes.
THE CLERK: Is it your verdict that the defendant, Julie Amero, is guilty of four counts of Risk of Injury to a Child?
A Yes.
THE CLERK: Is it your verdict that the defendant, Julie Amero, is guilty of four counts of Risk of Injury to Child?
A Yes.
THE COURT: First of all, I want to thank you for your service. I will come speak to you in a minute. I will ask you to retire to the jury room briefly, and I will be there in a few minutes. Thank you very much.
(Jury excused)
THE COURT: Mr. Smith.
MR. SMITH: Your Honor, based on the verdict of guilty in each of the counts that were brought forward in the information, the State would ask at this point - obviously, I assume the defense is going to a pre-sentence investigation, and the state would ask for a pre-sentence investigation. The state would inquire, how much is the bond?
THE CLERK: There is currently a bond in place of $25,000 non-surety.
MR. SMITH: The state asks for the record for a bond of $50,000, a surety bond of $50,000. And also the state would ask that the defendant not have any contact with any children if she makes that bond.
THE COURT: Mr. Cocheo?
MR. COCHEO: Your Honor is aware my client has no criminal history at all. This is not a crime of violence. I would ask the Court to substantially reduce the bond so she will be at liberty.
THE COURT: All right. I think some bond is required based on the fact that these are felony counts that each hold ten years maximum sentence. There is an exposure of forty years in jail. But the case - to my understanding the defendant has no prior record. I am going to order a bond of $20,000 cash or surety, with no contact with minor children, and a pre-sentence investigation is ordered. Since it is a felony charge, I assume that is what you will want, Mr. Cocheo.
MR. COCHEO: That's correct.
THE COURT: Which is beneficial, quite frankly, to the defendant, but certainly to the Court in sentencing. That takes a certain amount of time. What date would that be?
(Pause)
Eight weeks from today would be when sentencing would be, which is March 2. Is that all right?
MR. SMITH: Fine with the state, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Is that all right.
MR. COCHEO: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Anything further?
MR. SMITH: Nothing by the state. I wanted to call you back on this issue. When she was polling the jury, for the first juror she only asked about one charge. We probably have to clear that up.
THE COURT: Can't we clear that up on the record right now?
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
THE COURT: When the court room clerk was polling the jury, for one of them she said one count but it was four counts, and they all acquiesced. I don't think there is any question that that juror didn't think something other than there were three other counts.
MR. SMITH: I would note for the record as I was watching the jurors they were nodding their heads on all four counts, and I just would say I assume this.
THE COURT: The defense is satisfied with the polling of the jury?
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
THE COURT: Mr. Smith?
MR. SMITH: Yes. We all have an agreement that the all the jurors found the defendant guilty on all four counts.
THE COURT: True, it was a ministerial act by the clerk. No one has any doubt whether one of the jurors felt that the three counts were different, right, Mr. Cocheo?
MR. COCHEO: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Do you think your client will make the bond?
MR. COCHEO: Yes.
THE COURT: I made it a reasonable amount. I had to set something. As you said, the case is two years old; no violence. I was assuming she would make that bond that I set. I will go into see the jurors now.
END TRANSCRIPT
This page, the result of a collaboration between advocates for Julie Amero and for Mozilla Firefox, is intended to be a significant improvement over the Norwich Bulletin version of the trial transcript.Karoli started the ball rolling by converting the 41 image-based PDFs hosted by the Norwich Bulletin into a single 11MB zipped image-and-text PDF version. However, while her new version was searchable, the text size and color changed every few words. The version here eliminates the inconsistent character formatting, heavy PDF file format, and embedded images.
This page (via Karoli's version) includes testimony of SEVEN students. The NB PDFs miss out / mess up some of the student testimony.
"Page 334" is actually a duplicate of "Page 324" in NB's and Karoli's versions. It is currently declared missing in this version. I plan to incorporate the correct text if I get ahold of it.
This version has more "redactions" (mostly removal of explicit language) than NB's and Karoli's versions.
This version is based on an OCR scan so may well contain its own errors. It has been carefully checked but don't rely on it for completeness or accuracy.
I may annotate this version. It may move to a wiki. It may have to disappear.
If accuracy or stability is paramount I suggest you use or link to the NB version instead of, or as well as, this one.
love, raiph
