Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories From: nobody@nately.ucsd.edu (Anonymous) Subject: New Baker Indictments Told Date: Fri, 17 Mar 1995 00:30:06 +0000 Message-ID: <9503170030.AA13259@nately.UCSD.EDU> Lines: 117 GRAND JURY SETS NEW INDICTMENTS AGAINST WRITER By Stephen Cain The Ann Arbor NEWS 3/16/95 Internet fantasy writer Jake Baker was reindicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit late Wednesday on five separate counts that he "knowingly transmitted communications in interstate and foreign commerce containing a threat to injure another person." The detailed new charges, which replace a one-count grand jury indictment issued Feb. 15, rely entirely on a series of private computer e-mail messages transmitted between Baker and a Canadian resident who uses the pseudonym of "Arthur Gonda." Gonda, who the FBI has not been able to identify, also was named on three of the counts in the indictment. He is believed to be a university student from Ontario. Baker, 21, a suspended University of Michigan sophomore who is currently living at home with his mother in Boardman, Ohio, is scheduled to be arraigned in front of U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn in Detroit at 1 p.m. March 24. The superseding indictment represents the U.S. Justice Department's attempt to both refine its charges in this first-of-a-kind Internet case and to avoid having the case thrown out on the grounds that Baker's communications are protected under the First Amendment freedom of speech provision. Although the law talks about a "threat to injure another person," none of the counts specifies a particular individual as being targeted by the alleged e-mail threats. That means the government will have to establish that a threat against a class of people, such as young women in Ann Arbor, is sufficient to make it a federal crime. Baker attorney Douglas R. Mullkoff, who is working on a motion to quash the indictment that he hopes to file in about three weeks, predicted the case will never come to trial. "This has suddenly become a much smaller case," said attorney David Cahill, who also is representing Baker. "I talked to Jake last night, and he's pleased that the government no longer believes he threatened a U-M student." "This is now a case that involves totally private e-mail, no easily identifiable set of victims and alleged threats that we believe are too non-specific and ambiguous to represent a crime. Jake is into role-playing, and 'Arthur Gonda' could be two 50-year-old women, for all we know." Baker came to the attention of university authorities in late January when an alumnus in Moscow encountered a graphic story of kidnapping, torture, rape and murder that used the real name of a female U-M student. Baker had posted the tale on a section of the Internet reserved for sex stories and accessed by some 250,000 computer users worldwide. Baker, according to a later FBI affidavit, told an agent the young woman was in one of his classes and that he was attracted to her. Baker was arrested Feb. 9 and held without bond for more than a month. Judge Cohn ordered him released last Friday after a court-appointed psychiatrist testified that Baker was not psychotic and wouldn't act out his fantasies. The individual "threat to injure" charges, each of which carries the potential of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, are: COUNT ONE -- On Dec. 1, Baker messaged Gonda that "I want to do it to a really young girl first, 13 or 14. Their innocence makes them so much more fun." Gonda agreed, noting that "you can control any bitch with rope and a gag" and promised to keep an eye out for young girls. Gonda, who was named in the count along with Baker, asked about a young woman from Baker's hometown that he had mentioned in a prior message. Baker answered: "She's really pretty, with nice long legs and a great girly face...I'd love to make her cry." The FBI has not been able to identify the girl. COUNT TWO -- Baker is the only defendant named in the count, which is based on a Dec.9 e-mail message from Baker to Gonda. In the message, Baker talked about wanting to find a secluded area around Ann Arbor and then spelled out in detail how his dorm room is across from the women's bathroom and how he would abduct a woman late at night. The specific charge involves a threat to kidnap. COUNT THREE -- The additional count relies on the same e-mail message as Count Two. But in this instance, the specific charge is a threat to injure. COUNT FOUR -- On Dec. 10, Gonda e-mailed Baker that "I am thinking more and more about 'doing' a girl...I can think of no better use for their flesh. I HAVE to make a bitch suffer!" Baker responded: "Our tastes are so similar...when I lay down at night, all I think of before sleep is how I'd torture a bitch I get my hands on." Both men are named as defendants. COUNT FIVE -- On Dec. 11 and Dec. 12, Gonda first e-mailed Baker that: "I had an orgasm today thinking how you and I would torture this very, very petite and cute South American girl in one of my classes...speaking of torture, I have got this great full-length picture of the Mahaffy girl Paul Bernando killed. She's wearing this very short skirt!" Baker responded: "Just thinking about it anymore doesn't do the trick...I need TO DO IT." Gonda's reference was to Leslie Mahaffy, 14, or Burlington,Ont., who in 1991 was kidnapped, raped, murdered, dismembered and her body parts encased in concrete. Paul Bernando is set to go on trial May 1 in the killing of Mahaffy and the slaying of a second teen.