Total Criminal Defense Blog

Sure, citizens have access to open records from their local law enforcement agencies.  But in today’s information age, we’ve gotten used to the ease with which we can access things as diverse as open-source code, hit pop songs and government records on-line.  In reality, our ability to use “open” records may be thwarted at the local level if our area law enforcement agencies have made it impossible to do so.

Reason Magazine’s Hit-and-Run blog has a fascinating look at one concerned citizen’s attempt to access Houston police records on force-entry drug raids and complaints filed against HPD for drug warrants.  First of all, the price tag: $100,000 for two requests.  Why so expensive?  Houston keeps its records in paper copy, and to accurately find complaints for drug warrants, employees would have to take the files for 43,456 complaints lodged in the last seven years and look for drug cases.  Amazing!

Imagine what it would be like if he’d tried Chicago!

While many of us might laughingly favor jail terms for people constantly checking their e-mail, few would think you could actually get a long prison sentence for logging on. To his amazement, Sam Peterson was charged with a felony for logging onto the WiFi system at his neighborhood coffee shop. He had faced up to five years in prison and $10,000 fine.

Peterson was in the habit of logging onto the Union Street Café’s WiFi system to check his e-mail. Every day, he drove up to the café, parked his car and logged on. Sparta, Michigan Police Chief Andrew Milanowski got suspicious of what Peterson was doing in his car everyday. So, Milanowski checked his law books. It is illegal, in Michigan, to “piggyback” (using someone else’s WiFi system). A 1979 law, designed to protect people from hackers, makes “unauthorized use of computer access” a felony.

Neither Peterson, nor the coffee shop owner knew Peterson was committing a crime. Peterson was, nonetheless, fined $400 and ordered to perform 40 hours of community service and enroll in a diversion program, but received no prison time.

So, know this … it may be a crime in your state to piggyback on someone’s WiFi.

In 1987, Jimmy Lee Page was found not guilty of murder by an Austin, Texas jury, but 20 years later, he remains a prisoner. Disregarding the jury’s verdict, the Texas Parole Board revoked Page’s parole. Page’s fate is, apparently, a common practice in Texas. Last year, 91 parolees were returned to prison after being charged with a crime, even though the charges against them were later dropped or they were acquitted in court.

In Page’s case, the Parole Board held its own hearing. Not being bound by the strict rules of the Texas courts of law, the Board held Page to be guilty after listening to only one witness, a police detective who declared Page to be “guilty as homemade sin.” Page has been denied parole a dozen times since.

Page had pled guilty to a 1975 murder and served 11 years of a life sentence before being paroled in 1986.

Some jurors in the Austin trial were shocked that their verdict could be ignored by the parole board, leaving Page with a life sentence regardless of the Jury’s finding.

I’ve just read a newspaper article on former NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak, who is accused of kidnapping in a confrontation with a fellow astronaut. A copy of her mugshot accompanied the article. I can tell you right now, just from looking at the picture, she’s guilty, guilty as sin, guilty of whatever the police want to charge her with.

In about a month, a Florida criminal court will select jurors for her trial. To find jurors who are not already prejudiced against Nowak, they’ll have to select people who don’t watch television nor read the newspaper. Just about everyone looks guilty in a mugshot.

Whenever someone has a mugshot taken, they’ve been arrested and have probably spent a few hours in jail. An arrest is extremely stressful for most people, so when they have their photograph taken, they look stressed, haggard, and guilty.

If newspapers and television news programs want to present a balanced story of an arrest, they need to find another picture of the accused and stop using pictures that will help send that person to prison.