MIT Wants to Quell Student Hacker Felony Charges
- By Paul McCloskey
- 03/09/07
MIT administrators are working with Middlesex County, MA district
attorney's office to transfer the felony trials involving three
students who were charged with trespassing in the MIT faculty club to
an internal university disciplinary committee, "The Tech," a campus
news service, reported.
Three MIT students, who contend they
were hacking a wire closet when caught, are facing charges after
setting off a burglar alarm in the faculty club last October. The case,
which was filed in the Middlesex County Cambridge District Court by the
MIT Police, has raised concern among some in the MIT community who feel
that the students are being brought to court for a prank that in the
past has generally been handled within MIT.
Undergrads Kristina
Brown and Matthew Peterson and grad student David Nawi were found by
MIT Police officers who were responding to a burglar alarm in the
faculty club. The students were found near an open panel in the wall
that leads to a crawl space, according to the MIT Police incident
report. They were charged with breaking and entering, a felony.
Hareld
Abelson, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science,
told The Tech that "there was a lapse in MIT procedures that resulted
in this case getting so far along without the top administration
knowing about it."
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About the Author
Paul McCloskey is contributing editor of Syllabus.
