mafia boy resists fedz

[David Honig]

	http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20001205/2888098s.htm

'Mafiaboy' trying to stare down
                prosecutors Lawyer: If teen accused
                of shutting down Web sites of CNN,
                Yahoo has to go to trial, prosecutors
                will pay

                By Kevin Johnson
                USA TODAY

                MONTREAL -- Nearly a year after a hacker shut down some
                of the biggest names on the Internet -- causing an estimated
                $1.3 billion in lost business -- prosecutors and lawyers
                representing a defendant known as ''Mafiaboy'' are locked in
                a high-stakes game of chicken over whether the case will go
                to trial. 

                The 16-year-old is charged with the cyber equivalent of
                breaking and entering in assaults last winter that shut down
                sites operated by Yahoo, eBay, CNN and E-Trade. 

                The attacks, in which the Web sites were overloaded with
                requests from supercomputers infected with a program
                planted by a hacker, affected millions of Internet users
                worldwide.

                If convicted, prosecutors say, Mafiaboy -- whose name is
                being withheld because he is a juvenile -- could face up to
two
                years confinement in a youth center, $1,000 in fines and up to
                240 hours of community service.

                Prosecutors are willing to consider a plea agreement, but only
                if it includes some confinement.

                Absolutely not, says the teen's attorney, who vows that if
                prosecutors stick to that position, they'll be sorry. 

                Yan Romanowski says his client is bracing for a protracted
                trial, lasting four to six months, during which the defense
will
                demand that the government show the computer program that
                brought the Internet giants to their knees.

                Internet security experts are calling the strategy
blackmail, and
                prosecutors say they do not believe that publicizing the
                program, which Mafiaboy allegedly found on the Internet,
                would be necessary.

                Nevertheless, Romanowski, in a likely attempt to gain
                leverage in plea-bargain talks, is playing hardball. The
lawyer
                plans to challenge the legality of wiretaps that allowed Royal
                Canadian Mounted Police to collect 40 days of telephone
                conversations, during which the teenager is alleged to have
                bragged about his exploits behind the keyboard. 

                The wiretaps were planted after authorities traced computer
                ''fingerprints'' left on one supercomputer used in the attacks
                back to Mafiaboy. ''If that evidence is eliminated,''
                Romanowski says, ''the whole case gets kicked.''

                If the evidence stands, as prosecutor Louis Miville-Deschenes
                expects, the defense envisions a courtroom drama that will
                require some of the biggest players in electronic commerce to
                testify as embarrassed victims of a boy's mischief. ''This is
                not an open-and-closed case by any means,'' Romanowski
                says.

                Perhaps, but the lawyer's client might have not have helped
                matters when he was arrested last Friday and accused of
                violating the terms of his bail by repeatedly breaking school
                rules at Riverdale High. He remained in custody Monday
                night and was scheduled for a detention hearing today. 

                ''The kid has been a general pain in the posterior,''
                Miville-Deschenes says. 

                This Friday, the teenager is expected to answer the hacking
                charges. Romanowski says he plans to plead not guilty. 

                As part of any plea negotiation, prosecutors have asked him
                to participate in debriefing sessions with Canadian
authorities
                and possibly U.S. investigators to discuss his relationships
                with a vast, international network of associates.

                Like detention, that's also unacceptable to the defense, say
                Romanowski and John Calce, 45, Mafiaboy's father. 

                Because of ''loyalty,'' Calce says, there is no chance his son
                would sit down with authorities to discuss his private
                communications with friends. ''I don't think he'll be
                cooperating with them.''

                In a bizarre case that parallels the one involving his son,
Calce
                is facing a conspiracy charge because of what Canadian
                authorities heard on the telephone wiretap designed to garner
                evidence against his son.

                Investigators say they decided to move in on both of them the
                morning of April 15 after phone transmissions picked up
                Calce, who is president of a transportation company, allegedly
                planning to have someone rough up a business associate. 

                Romanowski, who also represents Calce, suggests that the
                father's strong words on the telephone were simply
                misinterpreted.

                Calce says the dispute involved about $1.5 million but adds
                that he never intended to hurt anyone.

                ''It was the worst possible thing that could happen,'' Calce
                says of the police raid at his suburban home. ''I came
                downstairs in my bathrobe, and there were about 20 Mounties
                in my house. One guy grabbed me by the robe; I told him to
                get his hands off. I'm not an easy guy to push around.''

                There is no disputing that.

                Calce's chalk-stripe suit doesn't hide his formidable size and
                raw manner. Unshaven and blunt-speaking, Calce's physical
                presence, plus the charge lodged against him, seems to invite
                questions about whether there is any special significance
to his
                son's Internet moniker.

                Calce and his lawyer consider the question, share a chuckle
                and then politely decline to respond.

                ''I don't think we'll comment on that one,'' Romanowski says.

                Patrick Healy, a law professor at McGill University in
                Montreal, says a trial in the Mafiaboy case almost certainly
                would provide a unique forum to contest privacy issues and
                sabotage in the computer world.

                ''There have not been many prosecutions of this kind
                anywhere,'' he says.

                And if there is an advantage to taking this case to trial, the
                professor says, it might be tied directly to the
defendant's age.
                ''A trial just might show this boy to be a clever kid who
                should not be hit with a ton of bricks,'' Healy says.

                Computer security analyst Marc Rasch says prosecutors
                should not be intimidated by Romanowski's threat to expose
                potentially damaging hacking information. In this case, he
                says, the type of assault already has been fairly well
detailed
                in media accounts of the charges lodged against the boy.
                ''There is genuine risk that publication (of this formula)
again
                could cause additional exploitation,'' Rasch says, ''but that
                shouldn't dictate how the prosecution should proceed.''

                Miville-Deschenes, the prosecutor, does not appear to be
                fazed by the prospect of courtroom disclosure of sensitive
                information.

                However, he is concerned about the potential cost of a
                lengthy trial and the presentation of complex evidence to a
                judge whose computer savvy might be limited. 

                ''I understand that there may be a certain Robin Hood-type
                aspect to this case'' that could foster sympathy for the
                defendant, the prosecutor says. ''This was a kid who was able
                to bring huge dot-com companies to their knees. . . . If he
                were an arsonist, people would want to stone him because of
                the damage he caused. The intent in this case and the damage
                caused is basically the same.''

                If the hacking case goes to trial, Calce says, the defense
will
                make no attempt to portray his son as a perfect kid.

                In addition to his arrest last Friday, the teen spent two
days in
                detention last July for associating with two boys he was
                prohibited from seeing while the charges are pending.
                Romanowski says his client was merely attempting to avoid
                the two friends when police swooped in.

                ''The kid is definitely feeling the pressure,'' Romanowski
says.
                ''He doesn't find it funny. He has found out that the margin
                for error in his life right now is not what it used to be.
There
                are a lot of people out there just waiting for him to slip
up.''