Porn charges for ex-publisher and exec
Former Newsday publisher and Regents official is indicted on Internet child pornography charges
BY PATRICIA HURTADO, Newsday, June 29, 2005

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Robert M. Johnson, a former Newsday publisher who also was a top state education official, was indicted Tuesday on charges that he downloaded two Internet movie files containing child pornography and that he tried to destroy those files after learning a federal investigation was under way.

The alleged incidents occurred while Johnson was chairman and chief executive at Bowne & Co., a Manhattan-based financial printing firm.

Johnson, 59, who served as publisher and chief executive for Newsday from 1986 until November 1994, left the lower Manhattan courthouse Tuesday after being released on $500,000 bond. He declined to comment.

However, one of his defense lawyers, Stephen Scaring, told reporters, "Mr. Johnson was not involved in child pornography. ... He's prepared to defend himself at trial."

Johnson was named to the State Board of Regents, which is responsible for supervising all educational activity in the state, in 1995. He joined Bowne in 1996.

He abruptly stepped down from both positions in May 2004, citing "personal reasons." Tuesday's indictment alleges that his resignations coincided with a federal probe by agents of the Department of Homeland Security's Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

According to the office of U.S. Attorney David Kelley in Manhattan, ICE agents launched their probe after learning Johnson had used Bowne computers to purchase membership in Web sites that contained and distributed child porn. ICE regulates Web sites, because some are based overseas.

Johnson was charged with receiving child pornography through a computer, punishable by a term of up to 20 years in prison. He also was charged with possessing child pornography, which carries a term of up to 10 years in prison, and destroying records in a federal investigation, which carries a term of up to 20 years in prison. All three charges carry mandatory minimum 5-year prison terms and a maximum fine of $250,000.

At a hearing Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney John O'Donnell told U.S. Magistrate-Judge Kevin Nathaniel Fox that Johnson had been arrested at 11 a.m. Tuesday on a federal .indictment.

According to the indictment, between April 2002 and May 2004 Johnson used Bowne computers to download child pornography using two Internet aliases.

The indictment charges Johnson allegedly downloaded at least two movie files titled "real child rape" and "luciamin," both of which contained images of child pornography, from a Web site outside New York.

On May 4, 2004, ICE agents spoke to two Bowne executives and informed them of their investigation but did not name Johnson, the indictment said. Later that day, the firm's then-general counsel advised Johnson of the investigation.

According to prosecutors, after learning of the probe, Johnson used a computer program called "Evidence Eliminator" on May 6, 2004, which obliterated 12,000 files from his office's desktop computer, and then used the program to scrub his company laptop's hard drive. Investigators seized both hard drives on May 10, 2004.

At a brief hearing Tuesday, Fox agreed to release Johnson on a $500,000 bond, but ordered that he surrender his passport and limit his travel to New York as well as western Michigan, where he now lives.

Fox also ordered that Johnson should have no unsupervised contact with children and continue to receive psychological counseling. The magistrate also ordered court authorities to install an electronic monitoring device on Johnson's home computer to ensure that he does not access prohibited Web sites.

At Bowne, calls were referred to an outside public relations firm. Spokesman Chuck Burgess said the company "has been cooperating with authorities."

Staff writer James T. Madore contributed to this story.
Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.

3/25/04
Jacobs to Co-Chair State's Technology Policy and Practices Council

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Donald J. Jacobs, founder and director of UB's Center for Applied Technologies in Education and chair of the education policy group Education Innovation Consortium, was appointed last week to co-chair the University of the State of New York (USNY) Technology Policy and Practices Council.

USNY comprises the five areas of public education in New York State: Elementary, Middle, Secondary and Continuing Education; Higher Education; Office of Cultural Education (including Public Television); Office of the Profession, and Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities.

The council was established by the Board of Regents in 2004 and charged with mapping the technology assets of USNY institutions and recommending strategies for using those assets to accelerate closing the performance gap in student achievement.

"The largest educational challenge we face in this state, and indeed across the country, is in closing the achievement gap in K-16 education", Jacobs said. "The USNY Technology Policy Council will provide an opportunity for us to identify the numerous ways that technologies are currently used to support education and identify ways to bring greater collaborative USNY technology resources to issues like closing the achievement gap".

The USNY Technology Policy and Practices Council will report directly to New York State Regent Robert Johnson and the other members of the Board of Regents.

"The reason for this initiative is very simple", Johnson said. "I do not believe that we can close the performance gap and provide acceptable levels of instruction to all students, especially those who live in urban and rural areas, without leveraging technology to make high level instruction available to all. We will never have enough qualified math, science, ESL and foreign language instructors to provide on site, in the classroom instruction at current salaries and it is unreasonable to believe that the finances of education are going to change that paradigm. Therefore, education must do what industry has done--use technology to vastly improve productivity-to extend the reach of our best teachers so that they can help more kids without significantly increasing cost. USNY already spends enough on technology to make this vision a reality--if only we intelligently use the assets we already have in place. The goal of this Council is to figure out a way to harness those USNY resources, leverage existing technology, fill in whatever gaps exist and get the job done".

Robert Bennett, Chancellor of the Board of Regents added: "As we were discussing the need for establishing the USNY Technology Policy Group for the Board of Regents, we knew that the field was rich in talent and experience. Having seen and used the work of Don Jacobs it gives me great comfort and confidence that the Board will receive excellent, state of the art advice and guidance for this critical 21st Century policy making. Don understands USNY, the classroom teacher, the student, the parent and the administrators' perspectives and needs in applying technology to advance learning. An international advisor to school systems around the world, we are fortunate to have his and the University at Buffalo's resources to guide and modernize the benefits of applied technology.

Ellen Meier of Columbia Teachers College Center for Technology and School Change, also co-chair of the council, said it "represents an exciting opportunity to examine existing technology policy and practice, and make recommendations for the creative use of technology to enhance teaching and learning for New York teachers and students."

Jacobs is a resident of Grand Island.

ABOUT CATE: OVERVIEW
Over the past ten years, CATE has worked with school districts and not-for-profit educational organizations toward the common goal of identifying, developing and using information and technologies to support teaching and learning.

The fundamental premise on which all of CATE's collaborations exist is the commitment to using educational technologies in support of student success.

The Center concentrates work in four distinct, but overlapping areas: Creative Media & Application Development, Digital Curriculum & Content, Networked Learning Communities, and Professional Development.