Federal Prosecutor Stephen Heymann Wanted 'Juicy' Case for Publicity--And Found it in Aaron Swartz

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Alex Kane

Federal Prosecutor Stephen Heymann Wanted 'Juicy' Case for Publicity--And Found it in Aaron Swartz, Says Lawyer
The prosecutor who went after Aaron Swartz was "difficult" to deal with, according to Swartz lawyer Elliot Peters.


January 15, 2013 |


Three days after internet activist Aaron Swartz killed himself, his lawyer is speaking out about the zealous prosecutor who pursued Swartz over the downloading of articles from an internet database at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Huffington Post reports today that Swartz’s lawyer said that the prosecutor who went after Swartz, assistant U.S. attorney Stephen Heymann, was "very, very difficult to deal with.” The lawyer, Elliot Peters, added that Heymann wanted “some juicy looking computer crime cases and Aaron's case, sadly for Aaron, fit the bill...[Heymann believed that the Swartz case] was going to receive press and he was going to be a tough guy and read his name in the newspaper.”

The lawyer’s remarks to the Huffington Post come after other news outlets reported that a plea bargain Swartz was looking for fell through after Heymann said that “Mr. Swartz would need to plead guilty to every count, and the government would insist on prison time.”

Heymann, who has stayed silent since Swartz’s suicide out of “respect” for the family, has come under fire due to his role in Swartz’s death and his role in the death of another internet activist. “Back in 2008, another young hacker, Jonathan James, killed himself after being named a suspect in another Heymann case,” reported BuzzFeed. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/federal-prosecutor-stephen-heymann-wanted-juicy-case-publicity-and-found-it-aaron

[Scuba]

1. Who made this guy a federal prosecutor? His dad allegedly served under Bill Clinton.

[atreides1]

2. And yet

The banksters get a free walk...and will probably do it again!

[Kalidurga]

3. He needs to be fired.

He no doubt stepped over the line.

[Dollface]

4. If you missed Chris Hayes on Sunday you should check out his "You Should Know" segment.

It reads in part...

You should also know that at the time of his death Aaron was being prosecuted by the federal government and threatened with up to 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines for the crime of — and I’m not exaggerating here — downloading too many free articles from the online database of scholarly work JSTOR. Aaron had allegedly used a simple computer script to use MIT’s network to massively download academic articles from the database that he himself had legitimate access to, almost 5 million in all, with the intent, prosecutors alleged, of making them freely available. You should know that despite JSTOR declining to press charges or pursue prosecution, federal prosecutors dropped a staggering 13 count felony indictment on Aaron for his alleged actions.

In a statement about his death Aaron’s family and partner wrote:

“Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death.”

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/13/the-brilliant-mind-righteous-heart-of-aaron-swartz-will-be-missed/

[truedelphi]

6. Thanks for the information in your post. n/t

[Downwinder]

5. Stephen Heymann got what he wanted.

His name in the newspaper.

Is there a smilie for :karma:?