The 40-year-old Amero’s plight began October 2004, when she was assigned to a class of seventh-graders at Kelly Middle School in Norwich, Conn. After receiving instructions to not shut down when she was done, Amero got permission to use the classroom’s computer to log into her AOL account before class started.
After leaving the classroom to go to the bathroom, Amero returned to find a group of students gathered around the computer looking at pornographic images — the computer was inundated with sexually explicit popup windows. Amero ran to the teachers lounge but was offered no help and was told to just ignore the popups.
Amero said at trial, “no matter how many times I clicked the red X, and others would just pop back up.” A self-professed computer novice who says she can’t access her email without reading instructions written by her husband, Amero did not know how to shut the monitor or computer off.
Prosecutor David Smith said in court that Amero purposely clicked on sexually explicit websites, which included MeetLovers.com and FemaleSexual.com, and did not prevent the students from seeing graphic images.
Amero contends that she was not surfing for porn, and the popups were a result of adware or spyware. The computer she used did not have a firewall up, nor any anti-spyware, anti-adware or up-to-date virus protection installed — software necessary to prevent malicious popups.
“What is extraordinary is the prosecution admitted there was no search made for spyware — an incredible blunder akin to not checking for fingerprints at a crime scene,” Alex Eckelberry, president of a Florida software company, wrote recently in the local newspaper. “When a popup occurs on a computer, it will get shown as a visited website and no physical click is necessary.”
Much of the defense’s computer expert’s testimony was inadmissible because it was not available to the prosecution before the case began. The expert, Herb Horner, claimed that he found evidence that the computer was infected with two adware programs and one Trojan horse virus that could have caused the popups to keep appearing.
“I sincerely believe that had we been allowed to present our testimony in full, Julie would not have been convicted,” Amero’s trial lawyer John F. Cocheo said. “This is a grave miscarriage of justice.”
Amero turned down a plea deal in which she would have avoided prison time insisting on her innocence. She plans to appeal her conviction.