Diebold Whistleblower: Visit the Defend Stephen Heller Site

[freedomfries]

http://www.hellerlegaldefensefund.com

WHISTLING DIEBOLD by Robert C. Koehler, Tribune Media Services

They ain't gonna kiss you just because you're a whistleblower. No matter that you
exposed wrongdoing and struck a blow for fair elections. The larger good isn't
always obvious to the powers that be.

So Steve Heller, a Los Angeles-based actor whose day job is doing temporary office
work, faces three felony charges, all of which are a stretch: felony access to
computer data, commercial burglary and receiving stolen property. The Los
Angeles County District Attorney's office says he's a thief, an Internet criminal,
and that's that. And, oh yeah, he violated attorney-client confidentiality, and cost a big law firm a million dollars in lost business.

Serious stuff. And if the DA's office has its way, this is all the judge and jury will look at: the law in its narrowest sense, as though ethical issues aren't sometimes murky and enormously complicated.

Indeed, this is the story of a 44-year-old man who had a problem in practical ethics fall into his lap a little over two years ago, when he was temping in the word-processing center of Jones Day, a major Los Angeles law firm. Among the firm's clients was Diebold Election Systems, the largest manufacturer of electronic voting machines and voting machine software in the U.S. - and probably the most controversial.

Diebold machines are notoriously hackable and unreliable, and the company itself
is as secretive as it is politically connected. The company is in the forefront of the spread of unverifiable ("trust us") electronic voting across the country, a
phenomenon that many computer experts and fair-election advocates find utterly
terrifying.

"In connection with his duties on Jan. 29, 2004, suspect Heller was given an
assignment to work on a Jones Day document regarding Diebold voting machines,"
Heller's arrest warrant attests. "After completing that assignment, suspect Heller, without authorization, accessed and printed 107 Jones Day documents concerning their representation of Diebold."

<...>
There's much more on the site! Please check it out and do what you can to help out a great hero of democracy!
http://www.hellerlegaldefensefund.com

[Boredtodeath]

1. Bev Harris = No Stephen Heller

We should all ask Bev Harris to show the same courage Stephen Heller did and publish the rest of the 107 documents he handed over to her:

"In connection with his duties on Jan. 29, 2004, suspect Heller was given an assignment to work on a Jones Day document regarding Diebold voting machines," Heller's arrest warrant attests. "After completing that assignment, suspect Heller, without authorization, accessed and printed 107 Jones Day documents concerning their representation of Diebold."

snip....

He gave the documents to election-reform advocates, who got them into the hands of the media and state officials.
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col336.htm

[Bill Bored]

4. And how did the LA DA get Heller's name anyway?

Maybe he should have given the stuff to Judith Miller instead?
(She lies, but at least she protects her sources!) ;)

[Boredtodeath]

5. BBV has burned EVERY source

It's what they do.

[kster]

9. Kick.nt

[kster]

2. Kick-n-Recommended....nt

[Kurovski]

3. K&R (nt)

[kster]

6. Bev Harris, set up a legal defense fund for Heller

Bev Harris, founder of BlackBoxVoting.org, set up a legal defense fund for Heller, starting with $10,000 of $76,000 that she and colleague Jim March received from Diebold as part of a $2.5 million settlement of a lawsuit alleging the firm used false claims to get its machines approved and sold in California.

Harris told investigators that she met Heller in a Ventura County park and was handed 500 pages of documents. She told this newspaper that she was asked to "get them to the right place."

"He's really one of the purest whistleblowers I've ever met. He's never one of the people who looked for any attention or any gain in any way. His only concern was for protection of voters and the vote," Harris said.

Heller is being prosecuted for offenses similar to those that the California State Bar tried in 2002 to exempt from its own ethics rules, at least for government attorneys. The state Legislature also approved a similar whistleblower measure that year for government attorneys.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_3597455

[IndyOp]

7. Is the fund linked above the Bev Harris' fund??

There was some weirdness about funds Bev raised through Randi Rhodes' show...

:(

[kster]

8. Yes, Randi got mad at Bev and I guess all of us

because since then Randi rarely if at all, ever brings up the election theft machines.

[Boredtodeath]

11. Ummm, perhaps

She should show the courage Stephen Heller did and PUBLISH THE DOCUMENTS he gave her.

And, the only thing she says she did was pledge $10K to the EXISTING Heller defense fund.

[kster]

14. Bev gave 10,000 of 76,000 . Bev took the documents and

was asked to "get them to the right place."

SNIP........ From there, some were faxed to a documentary filmmaker for attempted hand-delivery to then-California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley in Manhattan.

The Oakland Tribune reported on the memos, and almost overnight they appeared on Web sites from Washington to California to New Zealand, then elsewhere. Two weeks later, Shelley withdrew his earlier approval of Diebold's flagship touchscreen voting system, calling the firm's behavior "fraudulent" and "despicable." It took more than two years and numerous improvements before Diebold again could sell its electronic-voting products in California.

What more do you want??

[Stevepol]

10. This case is one of many by now, but a vital one.

I believe if the lawyers are savvy enough and are able to use the whistleblower law, they can turn this in their favor with another lawsuit against Diebold and rake in more from Diebold. Nearly all these companies use mafia tactics to keep concealing their vote-stealing and frighten future whistleblowers.

[freedomfries]

12. please check the defense fund website

You will see that it stands on its own. Thanks Stevepol.

[freedomfries]

13. from the bradblog for you!

Stephen Heller, the whistleblower who revealed Diebold's plan... to break the law in California has set up a legal defense fund since being charged with three felony counts. We wrote about Heller previously and the excellent Tribune Media Services columnist, Bob Koehler, covered his story this week as well in a great column. Here are some comments from Heller's wife. He is in need of funds to fight against the bad guys. So, donations can now be made via the Stephen Heller Defense Fund website.