Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories
From: nobody@nately.ucsd.edu (Anonymous)
Subject: Baker Bond Delayed
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 1995 23:10:29 +0000
Message-ID: <9503092310.AA07209@nately.UCSD.EDU>
Lines: 62

JUDGE DELAYS JAKE BAKER'S RELEASE

By Arthur Bridgeforth Jr
The Ann Arbor NEWS
3/9/95

Jake Baker will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to find out
whether he'll be released from the federal prison in Milan.  He has
spent nearly a month behind bars on a federal charge of transmitting a
threat over a computer network.

Baker, a 20-year old University of Michigan sophomore, is being held
pending his April 3 trial for posting a story on the Internet's
.sexstories discussion group that federal officials say constituted
transmitting a threat of rape, torture and kidnapping of another U-M
student.

If found guilty, Baker faces a maximum of 5 years in prison and a
$250,000 fine.

U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn granted the U.S. Attorney's request for
Baker to undergo a psychological evaluation.  A report on the results
will be issued on Friday at 2 p.m.  At that time Cohn will make a ruling
on whether Baker will be released from prison.

This will be the fourth psychological exam of Baker, although the
previous three exams weren't ordered for the District Court.

Moreover, Cohn said an officer for Pretrial Services, which is a neutral
support agency for the Court, never had an opportunity to fully view
psychological evaluations submitted on Baker's behalf.

Each exam found that Baker, a native of Boardman, Ohio, wasn't a threat
to society, said Douglas R. Mullkoff, Baker's attorney.  Moreover, he
doesn't expect any surprises to come from this evaluation.

"We're confident the results will be consistent with the other
psychological exams," Mullkoff said.

Baker will be evaluated by an independent psychologist or psychiatrist
at the Ypsilanti Center for Forensic Psychiatry in York Township,
according to Cohn's ruling.

The psychological evaluation is the U.S. Attorney's last effort to keep
Baker detained in prison.

"We've asked that an evaluation be implemented to see if there's new
evidence," said assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth R. Chadwell, who is
prosecuting the case.  "We've agreed to be bound by that,"

Ironically, Pretrial Services made the original recommendation that Baker
be released on a personal bond.  The U.S. Attorney offered that
recommendation until U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas A. Carlson revoked
bond on Feb. 9 and U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman upheld Carlson's
decision.

Chadwell then adopted Carlson's ruling to keep Baker detained.