The Julie Amero Tragedy

Many of you are somewhat familiar with the Julie Amero Tragedy (JAT) and some of you are very close to it as you have been following it or are possibly involved with it as I have been. Simply stated it is the matter of a 7th grade substitute school teacher whose classroom teacher’s only computer and the only computer in the classroom with an Internet connection, encountered a pop-up storm of pornographic images marketing various porno websites.

Ms. Amero was tried and convicted of 4 counts of “risk of injury to a minor” in the State of Connecticut Norwich District Superior Court on January 4th, 2007. This case drew little attention in Connecticut or elsewhere from the time of occurrence until conviction with the exception of the immediate vicinity of the City of Norwich, CT[1] where the event occurred on October 19th, 2004. One could describe the sordid details[2] regarding what happened later but others have preceded me with that information and why should I be redundant.

While you might be able to sift the following information out of the many blogs and periodical reports regarding the JAT, hopefully this will be a bit more succinct and to the point. But, before I do, I would like for you to realize the frustration that those of us working on the case after the conviction were enduring and what became the turning point. As March 2nd, 2007 approached, her sentencing date, the best we could hope for was the sentencing to be deferred pending appeal which is rare. However, we were able to acquire a competent pro bono appeals attorney who obtained a delay until March 29th, 2007 so that he would have time to become familiar with the case. Still, we were concerned as to what the sentence might be.