June 18th, 2008
A life destroyed: State employee acquitted of child porn charges
Michael Fiola’s life was destroyed by spammers who turned his computer into a child porn kiosk. The investigator for the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents investigator fired for having kiddie porn on his PC. But, the Boston Globe reports, a computer forensic analysis revealed the machine was running out-of-date virus protection and had been seriously compromised by spammers and hackers.
Nationally recognized computer forensic analyst Tami Loehrs told the Herald Michael Fiola’s ordeal was “one of the most horrific cases I’ve seen. As soon as you mention child pornography, everybody’s senses go out the window,” she said.
Loehrs spent a month dissecting the computer for the defense and explained in a 30-page report that the laptop was infected with images of incest and pre-teen porn not visible to the naked eye. Two exams by the state Attorney General’s Office concurred.
Fiola now plans to sue the Department for “destroying our lives.”
“Our lives have been hell,” said Fiola, a former state park ranger now living in Rhode Island. “I hope to recover my reputation, but our friends all ran.”
DIA spokeswoman Linnea Walsh confirmed Fiola “was terminated,” but declined to say if any internal discipline has been meted out as a result of his name being cleared in court. “We stand by our decision,” she said.
How outrageous. In the words of Fiola’s attorney Timothy Bradl:
Imagine this scenario: Your employer gives you a ticking time bomb full of child porn, and then you get fired, and then you get prosecuted as some kind of freak. Anybody who has a work laptop, this could happen to. Mike Fiola is a hunt-and-peck kind of computer guy. He can barely get on the Internet.
Fiola’s case was offically expunged from the court Tuesday.
