A federal magistrate Friday refused to dismiss a felony charge against a former Cornell University computer whiz accused of planting a "worm" that shut down some 6,000 computers nationwide.
U.S. Magistrate Howard Munson denied two motions filed by a lawyer for Robert Tappan Morris Jr., 24, of Arnold, Md. Munson scheduled jury selection for Nov. 29 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York."We are going to trial. We (pleaded) not guilty. We are going to trial," Thomas Guidoboni, a Washington, D.C., defense attorney, said as he left the courtroom.
Guidoboni argued in a pre-trial hearing Oct. 20 that the case should be dismissed. He said federal prosecutors broke an agreement with the defendant by telling reporters the government might allow Morris to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, instead of facing trial on a felony charge, and he argued the "blanket indictment" was not specific enough in its charges.
Trial lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department argued that, even if a prosecutor erred in releasing information, there were not sufficient grounds to throw out the charge.
Morris pleaded not guilty Aug. 2 to a grand jury's charge that he gained illegal access to a national computer network and caused damage to computers by programming a "worm" that spread out of control late last year.
The program shut down an estimated 6,000 computers nationwide, and may have cost the military and universities millions of dollars, officials said.
Morris, who could face five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and an order to make restitution to anyone adversely affected by the incident, has remained free on his own recognizance.
A Cornell University panel and federal investigators claim the suspended graduate student created the computer "worm" and watched it spread Nov. 2, 1988, from the campus in upstate Ithaca, N.Y., to computers nationwide.
The university panel issued a report that said Morris worked alone on the program, and termed the incident a "juvenile act that ignored the clear potential for consequences." The panel said the program was technically a "worm" and not a "virus," because it reproduced itself through a computer system and did not use a host program to propagate.