| November 21, 2006 article from the Oakland Tribune |
E-voting 'hero' pleads guilty to computer
crime in Diebold case
By Ian Hoffman, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated:11/21/2006 07:32:19 PM PST
A Van Nuys actor who became a hero to electronic-voting critics
and digital-rights activists pleaded guilty this week to a felony
computer crime, paid $10,000 restitution to lawyers for Diebold
Election Systems and tried going back to his quiet life.
Stephen Heller, 44, was sentenced to probation for three years.
He had to write an apology to Diebold and its attorneys at the
Los Angeles office of the law firm Jones Day, saying there was
"no excuse" for sending confidential Diebold legal memos to
state elections officials and media.
Those memos, excerpted in both print and online editions of the
Oakland Tribune, showed that Diebold executives violated state
election laws by fielding unapproved voting software in Alameda
County and elsewhere in driving for sales in California, the
nation's largest voting systems market.
Despite being warned of those violations, Diebold still pushed to
use hastily assembled voting hardware that, in turn, broke down
in the March 2004 primary.
Soon after, state elections officials decertified Diebold's touch
screen voting systems statewide.
Heller said the plea agreement -- in which he pled guilty to
illegally "accessing a computer and making copies" -- was the
best deal that he and his attorneys thought he could get. If he
sticks to the rules of probation for a year, he can ask a judge to
reduce his conviction to a misdemeanor and eventually ask its
removal from his record. In return for the $10,000 payment,
Jones Day's lawyers promised not to sue him for what they have
claimed were "seven figures" of damages to the firm and
Diebold.
"I feel that this deal was in the best interests of myself and my
wife to protect us from further problems but mostly to protect our
assets from anything in the future," Heller said Tuesday in a
phone interview. "Such a judgment against me would have kept
my wife and I impoverished for the rest of our lives."
Critics of electronic voting hailed Heller as a courageous
whistleblower last March when the Los Angeles County District
Attorney's Office announced his indictment on unauthorized
access to a computer, second-degree burglary and receiving
stolen goods. The three felonies each carried up to four years in
prison.
Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, said the outcome of the case was "a miscarriage of
justice."
"I think it's vindictive. It's unfortunate that the lawyers of Jones
Day think they can push people around like this and marshal the
forces of the legal system to do so," Cohn said. "They should be
giving this guy a medal. The secretary of state should be writing
him a letter thanking him very much, for helping the people of
California and showing a light on what Diebold was really about.
Instead what we saw was the prosecutors being really an arm of
Jones Day."
A phone message to Jones Day's Los Angeles office seeking
comment was not returned.
Just a few weeks before the March 2004 primary election, Heller
was temping as a word processor on the 45th floor of Jones
Day's offices and heard a firm lawyer on tape describe ways that
Diebold might argue its way out of breaking state law and its $12
million Alameda County contract.
The next night, according to investigators who retraced his
keystrokes, Heller returned and began printing every Diebold
document that he could -- 107 memos, charts, actions plans and
emails, about 500 pages in all. The documents landed in the
hands of some of Diebold's most vociferous critics at
BlackBoxVoting.org. The Oakland Tribune published much of
those documents. Jones-Day unsucessfully sued the Tribune to
halt publication.
One memo warned that Diebold could be prosecuted for illegally
handling votes on Election Day. In one draft letter, Jones Day
attorneys suggested that California elections officials did not
have jurisdiction to test a voting system component that ended
up failing in presidential elections. In another document, Jones
Day advised Diebold of the need for sweeping civil and criminal
defenses, billed at up to $450,000 a month.
"I'm willing to say I know I committed a very serious crime,"
Heller said Tuesday. "I can say I wish other involved parties
had to answer for some things but that's out of my power."
He urged voters to ask Congress for laws requiring all electronic
voting machines to have vote-verified paper trails, open source
software, inspection by outside computer experts and be subject
to random recounts.
"We must not allow the private corporations to run our elections
for us in secret, using secret machines and secret software. The
only thing secret about our elections should be the secret ballot,"
he said.
crime in Diebold case
By Ian Hoffman, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated:11/21/2006 07:32:19 PM PST
A Van Nuys actor who became a hero to electronic-voting critics
and digital-rights activists pleaded guilty this week to a felony
computer crime, paid $10,000 restitution to lawyers for Diebold
Election Systems and tried going back to his quiet life.
Stephen Heller, 44, was sentenced to probation for three years.
He had to write an apology to Diebold and its attorneys at the
Los Angeles office of the law firm Jones Day, saying there was
"no excuse" for sending confidential Diebold legal memos to
state elections officials and media.
Those memos, excerpted in both print and online editions of the
Oakland Tribune, showed that Diebold executives violated state
election laws by fielding unapproved voting software in Alameda
County and elsewhere in driving for sales in California, the
nation's largest voting systems market.
Despite being warned of those violations, Diebold still pushed to
use hastily assembled voting hardware that, in turn, broke down
in the March 2004 primary.
Soon after, state elections officials decertified Diebold's touch
screen voting systems statewide.
Heller said the plea agreement -- in which he pled guilty to
illegally "accessing a computer and making copies" -- was the
best deal that he and his attorneys thought he could get. If he
sticks to the rules of probation for a year, he can ask a judge to
reduce his conviction to a misdemeanor and eventually ask its
removal from his record. In return for the $10,000 payment,
Jones Day's lawyers promised not to sue him for what they have
claimed were "seven figures" of damages to the firm and
Diebold.
"I feel that this deal was in the best interests of myself and my
wife to protect us from further problems but mostly to protect our
assets from anything in the future," Heller said Tuesday in a
phone interview. "Such a judgment against me would have kept
my wife and I impoverished for the rest of our lives."
Critics of electronic voting hailed Heller as a courageous
whistleblower last March when the Los Angeles County District
Attorney's Office announced his indictment on unauthorized
access to a computer, second-degree burglary and receiving
stolen goods. The three felonies each carried up to four years in
prison.
Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, said the outcome of the case was "a miscarriage of
justice."
"I think it's vindictive. It's unfortunate that the lawyers of Jones
Day think they can push people around like this and marshal the
forces of the legal system to do so," Cohn said. "They should be
giving this guy a medal. The secretary of state should be writing
him a letter thanking him very much, for helping the people of
California and showing a light on what Diebold was really about.
Instead what we saw was the prosecutors being really an arm of
Jones Day."
A phone message to Jones Day's Los Angeles office seeking
comment was not returned.
Just a few weeks before the March 2004 primary election, Heller
was temping as a word processor on the 45th floor of Jones
Day's offices and heard a firm lawyer on tape describe ways that
Diebold might argue its way out of breaking state law and its $12
million Alameda County contract.
The next night, according to investigators who retraced his
keystrokes, Heller returned and began printing every Diebold
document that he could -- 107 memos, charts, actions plans and
emails, about 500 pages in all. The documents landed in the
hands of some of Diebold's most vociferous critics at
BlackBoxVoting.org. The Oakland Tribune published much of
those documents. Jones-Day unsucessfully sued the Tribune to
halt publication.
One memo warned that Diebold could be prosecuted for illegally
handling votes on Election Day. In one draft letter, Jones Day
attorneys suggested that California elections officials did not
have jurisdiction to test a voting system component that ended
up failing in presidential elections. In another document, Jones
Day advised Diebold of the need for sweeping civil and criminal
defenses, billed at up to $450,000 a month.
"I'm willing to say I know I committed a very serious crime,"
Heller said Tuesday. "I can say I wish other involved parties
had to answer for some things but that's out of my power."
He urged voters to ask Congress for laws requiring all electronic
voting machines to have vote-verified paper trails, open source
software, inspection by outside computer experts and be subject
to random recounts.
"We must not allow the private corporations to run our elections
for us in secret, using secret machines and secret software. The
only thing secret about our elections should be the secret ballot,"
he said.
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