From: nobody@flame.sinet.org (Anonymous) Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories Subject: Judge Frees Baker Date: 11 Mar 1995 10:24:31 -0500 Lines: 102 Message-ID: <3jsfbf$bft@myriad.pc.cc.cmu.edu> JUDGE FREES SEX FANTASIST ON BOND By Arthur Bridgeforth Jr The Ann Arbor NEWS 3/11/95 Jake Baker was released from prison on bond Friday afternoon and now hopes that a federal charge that he threatened a University of Michigan student by posting a fantasy story on the Internet computer network will be dismissed. The 20-year-old U-M sophomore hugged and kissed his mother Vilma after U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn announced his release on a $10,000 personal bond. Baker has been in custody since his arrest on Feb. 9. He stands charged with interstate communication of a threat to injure a fellow student, who he named in a story posted on the Usenet discussion group "alt.sex.stories". The fantasy, which was titled with the woman's real name, is a graphic account of bondage, rape, sodomy and mutilation that ends with Baker and an accomplice dousing the bleeding woman in gasoline and setting her afire while she's tied to a chair. FBI agents investigating Baker's Internet communications also found a series of e-mail messages between him and a man in Ontario in which they were apparently discussing specific plans for abducting a woman in Ann Arbor. Baker told reporters Friday that he had learned something from spending a month in Wayne County Jail and Milan Federal Correctional Institution. "I am sorry to have used a real name," Baker said on the steps of the U.S. District Court in downtown Detroit. "I had 29 days to rethink that." Cohn's ruling came two days after he granted a motion brought by the U.S. Attorney's office to have Baker undergo a psychological evaluation. The actual evaluation wasn't released because it was confidential. But Cohn read some of the results conducted by Dr. Harold Sommerschield. Sommershield concluded that Baker wasn't psychotic and wouldnt act out his fantasies. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth R. Chadwell made no objections. "The government has agreed to be bound by the letter of these recommendations," Chadwell told Cohn. Douglas R. Mullkoff, Baker's attorney, has maintained all along that the stories were fiction, "...words floating in space," not a legitimate threat to the woman's safety. Mullkoff also considers them to be words that are protected by free speech guarantees found in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. "A First Amendment action may make this case non-criminal," Mullkoff said. That's why his next step will be asking Judge Cohn to dismiss the case. "I don't think this case will go to trial," Mullkoff said. "It's going to be dismissed by Judge Cohn." Mullkoff intends to file a motion for dismissal within four weeks. He will also ask for the scheduled April 4 trial date to be pushed back. Baker's release from jail has diminished the urgency for a trial, Mullkoff said. Meanwhile, Baker will return to his mother's home in Boardman, Ohio. He has been suspended from the University of Michigan Under the conditions of his bond, Baker must: * Stay out of Ann Arbor except to consult Mullkoff * Get psychological counseling twice a week * Don't have any contact with people involved in the case Also, Vilma Baker must check in with the court weekly and also report any abnormal activity by her son. One of the lighter moments in the proceeding came when Cohn was trying to explain when and how Baker could use his computer. "He (Baker) should not be outloading (uploading) the Internet but he can download the Internet," said Cohn, with a smile, as the courtroom erupted in laughter. Translated, the judge seemed to be saying that Baker cannot post any more stories on the Internet, but he can receive anything he wants off the Internet. The alt.sex groups in the Usenet have been filled with arguments about the Bake case and several discussion groups have been set up just to talk about it.