From: Tommy the Tourist (Anon User) Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.d Subject: Baker Email Told Date: 11 Feb 1995 06:45:36 GMT Organization: none Lines: 147 Message-ID: <3hhmeg$fkv@agate.berkeley.edu> Originator: remailer@soda.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU NEW E-MAIL SUPPORTS "U" CLAIMS OF DANGER By Ronnie Glassberg The Michigan DAILY 2/10/95 Following the arrest of LSA sophomore Jake Baker on federal charges yesterday, newly released evidence has brought support to the University's decision to suspend him. The U.S. Attorney's Office released e-mail messages between Baker and an Ontario man, Arthur Gronda, in which the two discuss torturing a woman. "I think the University is correct to be worried about danger to other students," said Joan Lowenstein, a communication lecturer who teaches a course on First Amendment law. "The University acted responsibly, but there may not be a criminal case here. Vince Keenan, chair of the Michigan Student Assembly Student's Rights Commission, shared a view similar to Lowenstein. "In light of the new evidence, I think my concern for anyone named in his fantasies extend further than when it was just the first message posted that had the name on it," Keenan said. University President James J. Duderstadt suspended Baker last Thursday under Regents' Bylaw 2.01, which gives the president the power to maintain the "health, diligence and order among the students" Yesterday, the University proceeded with an internal hearing on the matter for about four hours, without Baker's attendance. David Cahill, Baker's attorney, said the University only completed about a quarter of the hearing when it was adjourned at about 5:30 p.m. The hearing will be completed next week. The evidence released by the U.S. Attorney's Office added support for Duderstadt's action. In his affidavit, FBI Special Agent Greg Stejskal quotes an email message from Baker to Gronda. "As I said before, my room is right across from the girl's bathroom. Wiat (sic) until late at night, grab her when she goes to unlock the door. Knock her unconscious, and put her into one of those portable lockers (forgot the word for it), or even a duffle bag. Then hurry her out to the car and take her away," Baker wrote in the message. The next day Gronda responded to Baker's message. "I have been out tonight and I can tell you that I am thinking more about "doing" a girl. I can picture it so well...and I can think of no better use for their flesh. I HAVE to make a bitch suffer!" Gronda wrote in his reply. But Lowenstein said that even with the messages, Baker's speech remain protected. "It's the action that is connected with the speech that is not protected," Lowenstein said. "It is protected speech unless there is some act that turns it into a crime." Lowenstein said the prosecutor will need to connect Baker's messages to some action linked to the described plan. For instance, she said that buying a bag like he mentions in the e-mail could connect him to criminal behavior. "A key point is whether this was a fantasy or whether there was something which made it likely that the crime would occur," Lowenstein said. "Any time there's a statute that criminalizes a threat, it still has to be a viable threat." Prior to yesterday's move by the U.S. Attorney, the University only had released copies of three stories posted on the Internet, one of which named a female University student. The stories each describe the sexual torture of a female victim. The woman is killed at the end of each story. Vice President for Student Affairs Maureen A. Hartford said Baker's naming of a student increased the University administration's fear. "That was real," Hartford said. "When you have an individual student named, the University has to at least investigate and take that person's fear seriously. I also hope we responded in a caring way to an accused student." Vice President for University Relations Walter Harrison said the federal charges should change the media's perception of the case. "Prior to this, it was an interesting case because of the Internet involvement," Harrison said. "I think the judge's decision will broaden people's understanding of the variety of issues there." Yesterday's University hearing brought the media spotlight, with CNN, Detroit TV channels 2, 4 and 7, Detroit radio station WJR, and the Detroit Free Press waiting in the Michigan Union during the hearing. "The reason it's interesting to the media is the use of the Internet," Harrison said. "If he had done all that, and had not done that on the Internet, it still would have been a concern to us as educators." The action also has focused national attention on Cahill, Baker's Ann Arbor attorney. Cahill was the attorney for American culture doctoral student [name redacted for privacy reasons], who last month had the first open hearing under the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities, the University's code of non-academic conduct. Cahill said Baker contacted him last week after reading about [redacted]'s case in The Michigan Daily. Although Duderstadt used his power by Regents' Bylaw 2.01, the University normally handles non-academic disciplinary matters under the code. Keenan said the University should have acted the same for Baker's case. "We're still very concerned about how the University handled the case," Keenan said. "We want to make sure that no one's rights are abridged and now are even more concerned that everyone's safety is considered." Harrison said Hartford and Duderstadt discussed a range of options for Baker. "The president would always consider the widest variety of evidence when making a decision like this," he said. Hartford defended Duderstadt's use of the bylaw. "This case, in all the pieces, seemed to fit better under the president's power than under the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities," she said. Shipley found us 50 pounds of cyclonite from Syria. If they let their gaurd down then we'll blow it up. -------- For more information about this anonymous posting service,please send mail to remailer@csua.berkeley.edu with Subject: remailer-info. This message contains automatically generated keyword blocks that have been designed to resemble a threat. These blocks are not a statement of intent by the remailer operator or anyone else. -------- To respond to the sender of this message, send mail to remailer@soda.berkeley.edu, starting your message with the following 5 lines: :: Response-Key: the-clipper-key ====Encrypted-Sender-Begin==== ====Encrypted-Sender-End====