From Staff and Wire Reports
An appeals court has rejected the government's request to hear charges against Jake Baker, a former University student accused of breaking the law by sending computer messages describing the rape and torture of women.
In January, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision rejected the government indictment, which said the e-mail messages amounted to illegally transmitted threats.
The full court of at least 15 judges referred the Baker case back to the original panel.
That panel last week reaffirmed its decision that Baker did not actually threaten the women. He described the rape, torture and murder of women to a correspondent on the Internet in Ontario.
Douglas Mullkoff, an Ann Arbor-based attorney who represents Baker, praised the most recent court decision.
"I'm not shocked at all. I was expecting for the charges to be thrown out," Mullkoff said. "It's impossible for me to predict what is going to happen in Washington, but hopefully they will stop beating this dead horse and let him go on with his life."
The dissenting opinion was written by Judge Robert Krupansky, who said that the two men not only threatened women, but intimidated women or young girls with "physical harm as discussed in their plans."
Sandy Palazzolo, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office in Detroit, said yesterday that any decision to appeal now rests with the solicitor general's office in Washington, D.C.
Baker was indicted after he sent a message Jan. 9, 1995, through a computer bulletin board. The message described the fantasized abduction and sexual torture of a woman with the name of a classmate, authorities said. A Michigan alumnus read the story and alerted University officials.
The appeals court upheld U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn's June 1995 dismissal of the indictment.
Baker, who could have faced five years in prison, is now 22 and attends the University of Pittsburgh, where he is majoring in computer science.
"I hope this can all end. I really can't say anything further about the matter," Baker said.