Subject: Another experience with the law From: mailrus!iuvax!ndcheg!ndmath!nstar!watcher@UUNET.UU.NET(watcher) Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 04:01:01 EST ------------------------------ ******************************************************************** *** CuD #2.05: File 5 of 7: Another Experience with the Law *** ******************************************************************** regarding the fbi investigation of the nuprometheus source theft: i was a victim of this investigation. i lost my position at apple for "mysterious reasons" that neither my agency nor my supervisor could clarify. i was not "fired", as i was able to collect unemployment following the incident. however, exactly what happened remains a mystery to me. my story: in approximately mid-to-late february of 1990, the feds (steven e cook and his unnamed partner who didn't say much) went to one of apple's cupertino facilities (vg6 to be precise) to visit my (now ex-) roommate. as he was at home with the flu, they were not able to question him. two days later (this would be a friday), they paid a visit to our house after not having found him at work earlier that day. they proceeded to ask him many questions, mostly about who he knew and how he knew them, and whether he had visited certain individuals, such as henry s dakin. (dakin, as in dakin plush toys, who operated an endeavour known as the 3220 gallery in san francisco, where many interesting parties are known to take place.) they then asked him to come to their office in s.f. for a polygraph examination. he told them he would get back to them about this after consulting an attorney. attorney said such examination was meant to trip him up, that they had no hard evidence, and that he should decline and give them his (attorney's) phone number if they had any questions. the following week, they called on each of monday, wednesday, and friday (friday being the day he was to have gone in) to make sure he didn't miss his appointment; all three times they were given that "on the advice of my attorney..." he would not be there. following monday at 8 am, the county sheriff appeared at the door to arrest him on a four year old bench warrant. (county sheriff was required instead of the city police as we lived in an unincorporated section at the time, where city police would not have had jurisdiction.) he was arrested and left to sit in a holding cell for many hours while paperwork was done. it is interesting to note that the sheriff had a form with him with all the pertinent information (name/address, etc), which noted steven e cook of the fbi should be called (included phone number) if there were any problems. the officer was not too pleased when he found that he was "doing the fbi's work for them". i, however, stayed home (i guess this means i had no warrants). the next day, at around three in the afternoon, i was told that "some friends of mine were here to see me" and that i should get down to the lobby immediately. lo and behold, steven e cook had appeared in my building, having first determined my whereabouts from questioning my roommate. i was questioned for about 45 minutes, mostly on the same subjects as my roommate, along with several new and interesting twists indicating that they had done very thorough homework, including examining all the sign-in logs. i went back to my desk. i called my roommate. someone answered his phone (whom i knew) and told me "i guess he doesn't work here anymore." shortly after that, i went home for dinner, and as we (some friends had appeared by this time) were all standing around just about to leave, the phone rang, i answered it, and it was my agency explaining that i was to go in TONIGHT and finish my project, and i was not to go back tomorrow or thereafter. when asked from whom these orders had come, the agency was unable to provide any details. this was tuesday, march 13th, nearly ten months after the nuprometheus incident. some of the questions they asked me during my "interview" (the details are fuzzy and i have forgotten most of the questions): do you know john draper? how do you know him? how did you meet him? do you know henry dakin? how do you know him? how did you meet him? who owns the house you live in? (we were renting at the time, through an agency, i had no idea) since the phone bill wasn't rightfully in anybody's name (phone company's mistake) it was implied that we might be trying to defraud the phone company by providing false billing information (never mind that we had always paid it in the previous months). after the incident and its resultant newspaper article (see san jose mercury news, 15-march-1990, business section, front page), i found it extremely difficult to obtain work, since any agency that heard about the incident would "misplace" my resume and never call me again, and any attempts to secure employment at apple resulted in purchasing and cch telling the agency that i was "not allowed back", even before i had gotten an interview. all this seems to have been started by an old, vicious, enemy of my then-roommate's, who (it is assumed) claimed to the fbi that he had overheard my roommate bragging about his involvement in nuprometheus at a party. which amounts to heresay and witch-hunts. one thing's for sure: if the fbi later determines it was wrong, i know damn well that they're not going to go back and undo the damage. as of this time, no charges have ever been filed, nor any search warrants served, nor any equipment confiscated. perhaps i should consider myself lucky...? after all, all i lost was my job ($52K/year) and my credibility. ******************************************************************** >> END OF THIS FILE << *************************************************************************** Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253 12yrs+