Forwarded From: bluesky@rcia.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-08/19/060l-081998-idx.html
Two Sue GMU for $4.5 Million
Men Say They Were Falsely Accused in Computer Hacking
Probe
By Erica Beshears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 19, 1998; Page B05
An alumnus and a current student who say they were falsely accused of
hacking into the computer system at George Mason University have filed a
$4.5 million lawsuit against the school for defamation of character and
false imprisonment.
An attorney for Robert Shvern, 24, of Fairfax County, and Ryan Whelan, 25,
of Centreville, said the two men suffered great embarrassment and damage
to their reputations and lost jobs and money as a result of charges filed
against them last summer, which were later dropped.
Shvern, who graduated with a degree in computer science in 1996, and
Whelan, a student since 1991, filed the lawsuit in Fairfax County Circuit
Court on Aug. 5, naming the university and eight of its officials as
defendants. The suit claims the university violated their civil rights and
acted without probable cause when it investigated them.
"The plaintiffs believe the prosecution was instigated out of malice and
without a legal and factual basis and that they suffered damages as a
result of it," said Chanda L. Kinsey, attorney for Shvern and Whelan.
Kinsey said an employer withdrew a job offer to Shvern after reading
accounts of the charges in newspapers, forcing Shvern to accept a job with
less pay. Whelan owns a computer business called Two Radical Technologies,
which also is a plaintiff in the suit. Kinsey said Whelan lost several
clients after the charges were filed.
The lawsuit states that the university used an unproven computer audit
system to identify the culprit in a February 1997 hacking incident, and
that the audit was carried out by a university official -- Donald
Desrosiers -- who had a personal dispute with Shvern.
Shvern and Whelan also allege that the university police department
arrested them without probable cause, knowing that the audit would not
stand up in court.
University officials said they would not comment on pending legal action.
Between February and August of last year, George Mason University suffered
12 computer break-ins by hackers.
In the first incident, hackers inserted a program into the school's
computer system that sent derogatory e-mail messages about the chairman of
the Computer Science Department and the school's Security Review Panel to
administrative committees under the names of random students and staff
members. Another break-in last summer deleted academic work for 400
computer and engineering students.
Shvern and Whelan were arrested in July 1997 in connection with the first
incident. Shvern was charged with altering computer data, a felony; with
willfully using a computer network without authority; and with causing a
computer to malfunction. Whelan was charged with being an accessory to the
crime.
The lawsuit claims that university officials in their public statements
intended to falsely incriminate Shvern and Whelan in the incident that
deleted students' academic work.
Charges against Shvern were dismissed at a preliminary hearing in March
when a judge ruled that the evidence was insufficient to refer the case to
a grand jury. Whelan's charge was dropped a month later.
No one else has been charged in connection with any of the hacking
incidents, officials said.
George Mason University has worked since last year to bolster security of
its computer system by creating a committee to develop new policies,
spokesman Dan Walsch said.
-o-
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Received on Thu Aug 20 09:43:23 1998