Julie Amero Update
Posted by Karoli in News February 22nd, 2007
Do you hear that? Listen carefully and you’ll hear the sound of waves in the distance. That’s the sound of the tide turning for Julie Amero, like a distant thunder. There’s some interesting news today:
- It looks like the sentencing date MAY be delayed while her new attorney William Dow familiarizes himself with all the facts of the case. Aside: Don’t you just love their headline? “Norwich porn case….” Good grief.
- Andy Carvin (PBS.org) reports that this case has finally been picked up by mainstream media. I say: Maybe, but not nearly enough. They’re still reporting it as a bit of a fringe case, as though using the terms Internet and p0rn in the same report will gain traction in sweeps month. They need to get serious about this and push it to the top of the fold. I believe this is a ground-breaking case that will be cited in similar cases for years to come.
- Paperghost at VitalSecurity.org points out that the Norwich Schools beat reporter for the Norwich Bulletin who posted a truly outrageous rant a couple of weeks ago shouting that she was GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY has pulled the post from his blog along with the comments. Here’s a link to the cached version. I posted a comment on Tuesday calling him out on his analysis and his sloppy reporting of facts (not to mention bias). Unfortunately it wasn’t part of the cached post, so it’s gone forever. It didn’t say anything I haven’t said here, though.
I received this sweet note from Julie after she received the contributions I and others sent as a result of the 48-hour comment campaign:
Your awesome! Thank you for all you do. May god watch over us all. This is the worst time of my life. I have a great husband that is at my side. The child we lost took 2 years of fertility work, contraptions, and timing. That was our 1 chance. I look to life now differently. I see soooooo much more. Good and bad. But walking in my shoes, I have found I stumble now and again, look around and wonder why im still here. This is why I’m here. For the people out there that take the time to hear my case. Show compassion, those and many more reasons. Sentecing is a week away. I don’t know from minute to minute what to do. I walk around in a cloud half the day, wondering, what’s gonna happen? My dog, my 2 cats, a husband that i love with all my heart.This scares me. But again, i breathe, i look out the window, there is a reason for all this. Maybe some good will come from it. But truly, thank you for all you have done. The support is sincere and I thank you.
God bless you and all that worked on this. JUlie
Keep talking about this and keep shouting out, because the tide is turning because of people like all of you who write, read, knit, educate, parent, and live in a real world where the injustice in this case is obvious.
Update: Via State v. Amero blog, news that the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use has published a report written by Nancy Willard, M.S., J.D in support of Julie Amero’s innocence. Full Report (PDF). Jon’s Network has some juicy excerpts. I’ve almost finished reading it and will be posting some of my own. I’m also going to upload a copy here (learning from my dooce errors), just in case they go offline for some reason.
Also see the comments on this post, where Liz Ditz has excerpted an email she received (she’s removed identifying information).
Technorati Tags: Julie+Amero, Amero, Norwich, justice, law
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Here’s an email I got (identifying details removed)
And Andy Carvin’s latest post
Andy’s previous posts have lots of comments from teachers (and others) who have found themselves in Julie’s position: swamped with images, and unable to respond.
Expert Analysis of the Julie Amero Tragedy…
Nancy Willard, a lawyer in the education and computer law fields, has published an analysis (pdf download) today of the Julie Amero case after reviewing all available data, including the police reports. She also discusses the map of the classroom….
Thank you, Liz and Jon. I received a google alert about the Nancy Willard report and was just updating when your comment was posted, Jon!
I’m so glad to see the buzz ramping up to a roar!
this entire situation is a complete disgrace. the people calling for Amero’s blood should be ashamed of themselves - interesting that so many of them (like Axelrod) who were initially so sure of themselves are now pulling posts, going quiet and making out like nothing ever happened.
I wonder why…
[...] mentioned Nancy Willard’s report in an update to my earlier post today, but after reading the entire report it deserves a post of its [...]
At first, I had nothing but sympathy for Julie, but the first sentence of her reply made me consider if I wanted her teaching MY kids!
“Your wonderful…” instead of “You’re …”
Not exactly a 40-year offense, but I do wonder where she got her teaching credentials.