Stephen Heller's public statement on his plea deal

[garybeck]

if you have no idea who Stephen Heller is, click here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x459817
--

forwarded from MCM:


Hello to all my family, friends and supporters. This is Steve Heller, aka the Diebold Whistleblower. Today, November 20, 2006, my case was resolved in Los Angeles Superior Court. My wife and I are very happy it is over. The deal will protect me and my wife and our assets (we have no assets left, other than our house, but whatever we are able to accumulate in the future cannot be taken away from us in civil court). My attorneys and I think this is the best deal I could get based on the circumstances.



Please know this: I am proud of what I did. I was surprised to find within myself the courage to stand up and risk jail and financial ruin in the name of American democracy and clean elections. I am proud that I exposed, at great risk to myself, the criminal activity of Diebold, the company hired to run our elections. I am now a convicted felon, but my head is held high. I am a patriot, an American, and a man. No one - not Diebold, not Jones Day, not the District Attorney - can take that away from me.



Here is the deal:



I plead guilty to one felony count of Unauthorized Access to a Computer. I paid a restitution fee of $10,000 (ten thousand) to the Jones Day law firm and signed an apology to the firm and its client. The felony is what my attorneys call a "felony wobbler" which means that in one year, if I stay out of trouble (and believe me, I'll be staying WAY out of trouble!), the felony will be reduced to a misdemeanor. Then, my attorneys will petition the court to have the misdemeanor expunged from my record. My attorneys have told me that if I stay out of trouble during the coming year, the reduction from felony to misdemeanor will be automatic, and getting the misdemeanor expunged will only be a matter of filing the proper documents with the court. Once the misdemeanor is expunged, I will have no criminal record, and if anyone should run a background check on me it would come back clean with no arrests and no convictions. There is no jail time, no community service, and I am on informal probation, meaning I don't have to report to a probation officer or jump through any other hoops.



In exchange for this, Jones Day has signed a release that prevents them from suing me in civil court. Thus, any assets which Michele and I are able to accumulate will be protected from Jones Day. Also, there is no agreement of confidentiality, so I am free to talk about this case, write about it, even sell my story should someone here in Hollywood be interested in buying the rights to it (and there has been some interest expressed in that regard). And talk about it and write about it I shall! I am writing down the entire story and will post that on the defense fund website in a few days.



Regarding the defense fund: naturally we are no longer accepting donations. Those who donated in the last couple of weeks will probably be getting their donations back, once we pay my attorney's final bills. Some donors have already told me to keep the donations for my personal use, but I won't do that because the rules of the defense fund are clear:



"If by chance the legal situation is resolved and all costs are paid and there are still donations in the account, those donations will be returned; credit/debit card donations would be refunded with a credit to the individual's card via paypal, and check donations will be returned via check."



So if you donated in the last couple of weeks you'll probably be getting your donation back. If you'd like to pass your returned donation on to a worthy cause, please let me recommend in the strongest possible terms that you give your returned donation to Black Box Voting. Bev Harris, the founder of Black Box Voting and the recent subject of the HBO documentary "Hacking Democracy," is the person to whom I gave the documents I stole. It was Bev who got the documents to the Secretary of State, who then decertified Diebold in California. Bev was also extremely helpful with my legal defense, and her organization donated $10,000 to my legal defense fund. Most importantly, she has done and is doing great work in t! he area of election security and integrity. I'd like to see the bread she cast upon the waters come back to her, so please give generously to Black Box Voting. They're a great organization, they're doing important work that protects our votes and our democracy, and they deserve your help and support. www.blackboxvoting.com




Thank you, a thousand million times, for all your support, encouragement, donations and help. I can never repay the great debt I owe all those who have stood by me or helped in any way. I am humbled by the help my wife and I received, often from total strangers. Thank you again.



More details and the entire story of what happened will be posted soon. I'll send out another email letting you know when the entire story is posted on the website, probably after Thanksgiving.



Thank you again, my family, my friends, my fellow citizens. Have a happy Thanksgiving, I know my wife and I will!



Steve Heller

[AtLiberty]

1. Stephen Heller = a true patriot!

Although Heller was put through hell, it could have ended much worse for him.

In the grand scheme of things, this is a victory for Heller. I hope he does make up for it with a book and movie about this ordeal.

The scrutiny placed on Diebold the past few years, additional damning lawsuits and investigations, documentaries, and escalating public pressure played a role in this story's ending.

It is also a victory for election reform. Thank you, Stephen!

[garybeck]

3. book and movie

I wonder if the plea deal includes any rules about doing this sort of stuff. if not, he would make a great spokesperson for our cause. whether or not there's a book/movie involved, I'd like to see a lot of interviews and such. He should go on Lou Dobbs tonight!

[aquart]

2. He praises Bev Harris.

Dear me.

[newburgh]

4. Whatever else Harris's done, Mr. Heller's only "agenda" here was to...

thank those who helped him. I am surprised that other organizations or individuals weren't mentioned. This goes to the heart of whistleblower defense, not so much voting issues. Where were all those other organizations?

The lesson to be learned here is how to use such privileged information so that the source doesn't need to be revealed. I don't think many people are ever in Mr. Heller's position and even fewer would be able to handle this in an undetected way, but that should be part of the information provided by whistleblower and even election fraud organizations.

[garybeck]

5. there's a reason why

he singles out Bev Harris. it's because BBV filed the lawsuit that resulted in his disclosures. None of the other organizations you are referring to were involved. Bev deserves credit here.