Monday. February 5. 1996
7A
Crime evidence may be found on-line
The Associated Press
EAST WINDSOR, N.J. — They met through an on-line chat room, an electronic gathering place for gay men.
In time, they agreed to move from computer screens to a face-to-face encounter.
But their off-line meeting Jan. 4 turned deadly, police said, when George Hemenway shot Jesse Unger in the head as a 15-year-old boy watched.
The last homicide in this Trenton suburb of 22,000 people was 10 years ago and stemmed from a homosexual street encounter, police said.
This time, the investigation led to the back streets of the Internet. America Online complied with a search warrant and gave authorities computer files and copies of e-mail between the two men.
That set off lively, occasionally profane debate on the Internet about privacy rights. But experts said that on-line correspondents should not expect privacy and predicted that electronic communications eventually would be routinely examined by everyone from government officials to attorneys.
As homes and businesses become more computerized, more information would be available to private people as well as law enforcement personnel, unless there were a high degree of legal intervention, said noted First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams of New York.
He added, "For people who haven't done anything, it's a serious danger for their privacy."
"Most people...don't realize that when they delete-mail it doesn't necessarily go away," added David Banisar, representative for the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington.
He said that computer users should not expect to hide what they have bought, what they have read, where they have been, to whom they have talked or even their sexual orientation and fetishes from those who seek that information.
"I think you're going to start seeing the use of online records in divorce proceedings," Banisar said
on Wednesday. The next day, news broke of a New Jersey woman being sued for divorce by a husband who had read her e-mail and accused her or an adulterous on-line relationship, although the wife had yet to meet the man with whom she had corresponded.
Authorities already had used computers to track child pornography, credit card fraud and embezzlement on the Internet, but this was the first time police obtained an on-line service's computer files for a murder investigation.
Local authorities called in a computer expert to examine both the America Online files and those in several state-of-the-art personal computers
seized from the murder site, the house Hemenway shared with his father. They also examined computer files found in the homes of the 15-year-old and of Unger.
The boy claimed that both the victim and the accused had molested him on prior occasions, said police Lt. John T. Funda.
The boy had communicated regularly with Hemenway and Unger in an America Online chat room called "NJM4M," or "New Jersey men for men," where up to two dozen people can type comments back and forth.
help from two on-line friends: Timothy R. Brown, 23, of neighboring Hightstown and Michelle R. Benson, 24, of Trenton.
Hemenway was charged with murder and weapons offenses. Police said that he has confessed. Benson and Brown were charged with evidence tampering.
Benson later called police.
Hemenway, also 39, told police he was a car mechanic and carpenter.
Unger, 39, was a computer systems analyst in nearby Princeton.
Most people.. don't realize that when they delete email it doesn't necessarily go away.
Trooper Michael Geraghty of the New Jersey State Police Technical Assistance Unit is going through every file on the seized computers along
When Hemenway could not drag Unger's 250-pound body out of his basement, police said he got
away.
David Sanisar
Electronic Privacy Information
Center representative
with hundreds of computer disks,
data tapes and cartridges.
Because those weren't sought until two weeks after the killing, and America Online computers automatically delete e-mail five days after it has been read, Geraghty said that the files probably would contain only unread e-mail, which is retained for 25 days.
Geraghta has yet to tackle the America Online files and may not find much when he does.
The case is being watched by organizations that monitor computer privacy and free speech.
"Many America Online users may have a sense they're being misled and that their privacy is being invaded," said Mike Godwin, staff counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.
If both sender and receiver deleted a message, she insisted, "it's absolutely private."
America Online representative Pam McGraw said that the Vienna, Va.-based service did not save chat room conversations, but retained read e-mail for five days because members wanted to be able to re-read it.
- NATURAL FIBER CLOTHING
* NATURAL BODY CARE
* 820-822 MASS, * 841-0100*
NATURALWAY
OUIORTRAFIC TICKET?
Loss of Good and Critical Property.
- Drug and Alcohol Offenses
- Landlord/Tenant
1-800-890-9128
1-800-890-9128
Johnson,Thornbrough,Halleran & Davidson,LLC
Johnson, Theodore, Hilarion & Davison,
Licensed in Missouri & Kansas
ee Initial Phone Consultation
Jon Thornbrugh Bradly Johnson Free Initial Phone Consultation
Reduced Lives for Students
GO FAR IN THE AIR FORCE.
Learn how far the Air Force can take you. If you're a college graduate, you may qualify for Air Force Officer Training School. After completing
commissioned AirForce officer with:
Officer Training School, you can become a commissioned AirForce officer with:
- great starting pay
- medical and dental care
- 30 days vacation with pay per year
- management opportunities
Go far in a career as an Air Force officer.
Call: AIR FORCE OPPORTUNITIES
TOLL FREE
1-800-423-USAF
AIR FORCE
LINGERIE • GAGS • ADULT GIFTS
CHRISTIE'S TOY BOX America's #1 Adult Gift and Joke Store
CHRISTIE'S
America's #1 Adult
Check out our "Cos-
tumes" for your
"Private" party!
• ADULT NOVELTIES
• UNUSUAL GREETING CARDS
• HILARIOUS PARTY GAMES
• SENSUOUS OILS & LOTIONS
• CURRENT MONTHLY MAAGS
• COEDED NAKED & BIG JOHN-
SON T-SHIRTS & HATS
1206 W 23rd
"We StandBehind Our Work, and WE CARE!"
Rent 1 movie at regular price & get 2nd movie for 1¢ everyday!
LAWRENCE AUTOMOTIVE DIAGNOSTICS
842-8665
2858 Four Wheel Dr.
Domestic & Foreign Complete Car Care
Balloons are perfect for many occasions!
- Birthdays
- Proms
- Anniversaries
- Dances
- Weddings
- And More
Call:(913)749-4473
$3 OFF
Valentine's Day
Balloon Bouquet
Take an extra
$2 off if you order
before February 7!
Valid on any bouquet Good thru 3-31-96
WWW.WWW.WWW.
CPR can save a life in a heartbeat.
February 20 & 21
February 27 & 28
March 9
TuW
TuW
Sa
5:30-8:00 p.m.
5:30-8:00 p.m.
9:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
To sign up: 864-9570
Training classes cover adult/child/infant CPR using American Heart Association materials. $10 fee. Saturday class includes a 30-minute lunch break.
864-9500
--and Go...
Are YOU Taco Crazy?? Then prove it!
Mondays 4 p.m.-10 p.m.
All you can eat Hard Shell Beef Tacos $4.25 All you can eat Soft Shell Beef Tacos $5.25 Take a break from the same old food,
Taco Crazy!!
815 New Hampshire 841-7286