European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 14, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Thursday May 14, 1987 the stars and stripes computer expert charged with extortion Bartow Fla. A a Man was charged Wilh extortion tuesday for allegedly holding an insurance firm s computer hostage by using a secret password to Block Access to data files before he quit in a contract dispute. It look the company a week to break the coded password George c. Coker jr., former chief financial officer for Golden Eagle group inc. Of Lakeland also was charged with denying Access to an authorized user of computer systems services. Each count is a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a 110,000 Tine Jeff Homes Golden Eagle president said data on$400,000 in accounts receivable and due on May 15 were Frozen while half the 30-member staff worked overtime to find the password. We burned the mini Gill Oil since last wednes Day Homes said. Like president Reagan we re not going to be held hostage through acts of terrorism there were 2a million possible combinations. He scrambled the data soil could t be read by us and he also encrypted our backup up to eight digits could have Wen programmed in the password. The digits could have been any combi nation if letters and numbers the dispute centers on a question of ownership. Therm said it was denied Access to its information and will press its civil suits. Coker 39, said he created command files to manage data. The data he said was still available to the com Pany. The computer process to manipulate the Dat for an accounting purpose is what we re talking i feel they Piave stolen my property Coker said. Those files were my property intellectual property. I was a process i developed while i was there. I did it on my and when he left he said i rendered them unusable to unauthorized sources the company said Colter quit May 6 after itemizing demands in a letter to executive vice president Dick Johnson. The company said he sought a $15,000 salary hike wanted to keep an ism Persona computer Worth be tween $1,000 and 12,000 in Exchange for working overtime and wanted his last paycheck a letter 01 reference and a $ 100 fee. His demands were unreasonable for our company said Homes whose firm has $15 million in annual sales and offices in Tallahassee and Atlanta As Well us Lakeland. Coker who worked for the company for 2to years said tuesday he had been working without a contract and sought one asking for a salary review with it when he heard nothing from the company after a month he considered his employment terminated he said. Hot air dream Richard Branson Foft and balloon de signer per Udstrand show a prototype of the Virgin Atlantic flyer. At new York s explorers club Branson announced plans to become the firs person to Cross the Atlantic in a hot air balloon. 5store owners say Goetz bought weapons legally new York up a neighbor who secretly taped phone conversation with subway gunman Bernhard Roctz said tuesday she thought the celebrate shooting was of maddening stupefying Ambir Ivy and now avoids the so called vigilante. Two gun store owners from Florida and Connecticut including one armed with petitions supporting the defendant testified at the trial of Goetz charge Wilh attempted murder that he bought weapons from them legally. Roctz later hid the guns at the Home of his Middle aged neighbor Myra Friedman while he was a fugitive. But the subway gunman dismantled and buried near Bennington vt., the Silver pistol he used to shoot four youth son a subway train dec 22, 1984, after one of them asked him for is. Friedman who secretly taped two Telephone conversations with Roctz jus Days after the shooting and then sold the Story to a Magazine for 14,000 Testi fied that she told him to surrender but also suggested ways to gel rid of the gun sin her apartment. "1 Felt some sympathy for or. Goetz she said under Cross Cia Minalio by de sense lawyer Barry Slotnick. She giggled As she admitted telling Roctz could drop it the package of guns in the River but added "1 was not Friedman said she was concerned about the position she was put in when the subway gunman hid two weapons in her closet in Manhattan on dec. 30,1984, one Day before he surrendered to new Hampshire police. Later outside the courtroom she gave her opinions about the celebrated shoot ing. I consider the situation to be of mad Dening stupefying ambiguity she said. Friedman who Calls herself a Distant acquaintance of Oelz said she thought it was very outrageous very bizarre that he called her on the run she added that she did not think she violated a Confidence by taping the phone conversations she had with Roctz on dec. 29, 1984, and dec. 31,1984, John Campbell who owns a sporting goods and hardware store that Sells gun sin Gro Lon conn., and Kenneth Dilyn Field who owns a firearms shop in or Lando Fla., testified that Roctz legally bought gum from Ihm Campbell said Goeriz bought a .38-Cal-Iber revolver from him in August 1970 while living in Connecticut. Ditchfield said the subway gunman bought a 9mm Semi automatic pistol from him in sep tember 1984. Get used the address of his father to buy the second gun his family has purchased in the Day his father died they noted. Ditchfield came armed with 450 petitions from customers supporting Roctz. Heater said outside the courtroom that the defendant had a right to defend himself calling subways in new York very scary. Roctz 39. A thin bespectacled electronics specialist has been charged Wilh at tempted murder assault reckless end an. Germent and illegal weapons and faces As much As 30 years in prison. Florida Law eases curbs on hidden weapons Tallahassee Fla. A gov. Bob Martinez on tuesday signed Imo Law two Bills abolishing local gun control Laws in favor of state control and malting in easier to legally carry concealed Law provides uniformity to the gun bus which have varied widely among Florida s 61 counties some lenient others stricter than the state . A legislative analysis said 130,000 Florida resident were expected to apply for concealed gun permits each year under the new of the controversial Law say in will mean More violence and death in Florida whether a gun i drawn in a moment of passion or by a playing child. We will All regret it at one Point or another state sen. Jack Gordon said of the Bills jubilant supporters said in finally would give Law abiding citizens the Means to protect themselves. I think this is a great Victory for the people of Florida who have been victimized said Marion Ham Mer a lobbyist for unified sportsmen of Florida which is backed by the National Rifle association. Criminals Are going to think twice before they attack innocent citizens one of the Bills wiped out local gun control Laws and made the stale responsible for creating Laws about fire a Concession to opponents the Bill contains a provision that will allow county commissions 10 enact 48-hour Cooling off periods Between the Purchase an delivery of handguns. The provision was designed to prevent crimes of other Bill establishes a statewide procedure for obtaining a License to carry a concealed Secretary of slate s office will be in charge of issuing the licenses which Cost si25 for three Yea Sand Sloo to renew. People already carrying concealed weapons could continue doing so by paying a s1s also have to meet certain requirements including submitting a set of fingerprints for a Back ground criminal Check and demonstrating that they Enow How to use firearms. People convicted of certain felony charges will be ineligible. Last san Francisco Bathhouse for Gays shuts Down san Francisco up the last Bathhouse in san Francisco catering to homosexuals has shul Down in the Wake of the aids epidemic City he ally and Legal officials confirmed. Deputy City attorney Burk Delvyn Ihal said tuesday that Llic owners of the Bathhouse reached an agreement with the City 10 close the 21st Street Baths in Exchange for dismissal of fondle met of court charges that they Wen not i in Hering inc behaviour of Iligir Iii Kim. There a Ltd Aba 10 Gav Insan Francisco a decade ago before the Itan of the acquired immune deficiency syn drome epidemic which has taken the lives of More than 1,900 san franciscans the cily attorneys office won a court order against the 21st sired Baths and several other bathhouses and so club about two years ago threatening to shul them Down if they did not agree to Monitor customers to prevent unsafe sexual practices
