7 April 1999. Thanks to Anonymous.

See related files: http://jya.com/jmtfiles.htm

On April 2nd, 1999, James Thomsen was arrested in a suburb of Albany, NY, on ten felony counts of eavesdropping under NYS eavesdropping statute for allegedly reading his wifeís email without her permission or knowledge.

The Thomsens were married less than 8 months and had freely shared computer accounts and passwords but this email became an issue because it revealed the wife was having an extramarital affair. Mr. Thomsen then posted those emails on a secret web page site between him and his wife, which she revealed to authorities and police to allege criminal activity in both the US. And Canada where her email server was located.

Mr. Thomsen was the first arrest for a new computer crime squad from the Erie County Sheriff's office and had been placed on the ten most wanted list because he had insulted investigators on the private web page.

Erie County Sheriff's Ten Most Wanted
| James M. Thomsen DOB 04/22/55 White Male -- 5'11" 240 lbs. LKA: Grand Island, NY Area
Wanted for 10 Felony Cts of Eavesdropping, 250.05
In Custody - 4/3/99

The investigators were so determined to find Mr. Thomsen that when they heard of his arrest, the chief of the unit, Scott Petronic, and Detective Tirone drove at 8:00 Good Friday night over 100 miles an hour to Albany to retrieve Thomsen personally.

To discourage a beating, Mr. Thomsen informed them that he may be HIV positive. However, an hour outside of Albany Mr. Thomsen suffered chest pains and suffered a heart attack and asked the officers to take him to a hospital and they laughed and refused and kept rolling up and down the back windows to blast him with cold air at 100 miles per hour on the NYS Thruway.

Somewhere before Syracuse, Mr. Thomsen became unconscious. He regained consciousness outside Buffalo and the officers told him they were going to take him directly to Canada so he could learn Canadian justice. Mr. Thomsen told them it was a violation of his civil rights under 42 USC 1963 and that he needed to be taken for medical care immediately.

Upon arrival at the Erie County holding facility, Mr. Thomsen, who is disabled with an arthritic hip and left leg, was unable to remove himself from the car so his head was bashed into the door frame, and he was dragged by the handcuffs before being thrown into a small interrogation room for the next four hours without an attorney present. For three days he was denied contact with his attorney.

In the morning when booking procedures were started, medical conditions became evident and he was transported to the Erie County Emergency Room where he was promptly admitted to the coronary care unit.

He was denied for the next 72 hours any access to calling his attorney because the Assistant District Attorney handling his case was on vacation.

A bedside arraignment was performed and Mr. Thomsen is currently being held in a hospital prison cell under maximum security and under 24-hour suicide watch. He is not allowed either paper or pencil. Bail was set at $100,000 even though Mr. Thomsen had never been arrested before or been accused of any violent or threatening act. A grand jury will be convened to consider his indictment. Mr. Thomsen intends to testify at that hearing.

The Erie County Computer Crime Squad admits there is no evidence on the computers seized from Mr. Thomsen of the crimes for which he as accused but they reason that he could have used a lap top or erased the files. They are holding him for extradition to Canada -- which is the primary motivation for his arrest.

Local television, newspapers and radios have been flooded with press releases from the sheriff's office painting Mr. Thomsen as some sort of delusional madman rather than a despondent newlywed tragically trying to save all that he had invested in moving to Erie County to be married.

Erie County has invested over $100,000 in investigation and prosecution expenses to date.

Mr. Thomsen's personal views are at jya.com/jmtfiles. The secret web page is www.carolalaimo.com.

Technical legal and computer expertise is requested. (Please post this on Cyberia-L.)