Guilty verdict set aside in net saboteur case

By SHARON GAUDIN
Network World, 07/24/00

NEWARK, N.J. - A U.S. District Court judge has set aside the guilty verdict in the case of a former network administrator who had been convicted in May in the first prosecution of computer sabotage.

Timothy Lloyd, 37, of Wilmington, Del., was found guilty of planting a software time bomb in a centralized file server at Omega Engineering's Bridgeport, N.J., manufacturing plant. The malicious software code destroyed the programs that ran the company's manufacturing machines, costing Omega more than $10 million in losses, $2 million in reprogramming costs and eventually leading to 80 layoffs.

Judge William Walls, who presided over the four-week trial, handed down the decision July 14 after one of the jurors who heard the case approached the court with concerns days after the guilty verdict had been handed in.

The juror told the judge she was unsure whether a piece of information she heard on the television news had been factored into her verdict, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney V. Grady O'Malley, who prosecuted the case. "Although she couldn't articulate what impact it had, she simply made the statement that she was unsure about whether it was important to bring to the court's attention," O'Malley says.

Walls, who did not write an opinion on the decision, called the information prejudicial. The judge declined to comment on an open case.

O'Malley, who said he was "puzzled" by Walls' decision, says the U.S. Attorney's Office is appealing the decision to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, in part because the juror did not receive the information improperly. He says it was not discussed during deliberations, it was not related to the case and the judge had instructed the jury to base its deliberations solely on evidence presented in trial.

O'Malley says if the appeal fails, he will retry the case.

"It had nothing to do with the evidence in the case," O'Malley says. "It had nothing to do with how the government presented its case. ... This had to do with an extraneous piece of information that one juror seemed to focus on after the verdict came in. You can't go behind the deliberation process. If that were the case, no verdict would be safe."

Edward Crisonino, one of Lloyd's two defense attorneys, says what the juror heard on the news had "nothing to do with the case," but might have factored into her thinking.

Crisonino says Lloyd was relieved. "He would definitely like to have this over, but if it means not going to prison, I'm sure he'll wait another year," Crisonino says. "This is less frustrating than prison."

The Lloyd case was the first federal criminal prosecution of computer sabotage. Industry observers hailed the conviction as a precedent-setting victory, proving that the government is capable of tracking down and prosecuting computer crime.

Lloyd has maintained his innocence. "There's no way in the world I did this," he said in an interview after the verdict was handed down in May.

If the guilty verdict is re-engaged, Lloyd will face up to five years in federal prison.