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The Boston Globe, September 23, 1994
Lawyer for alleged molester calls computer eavesdropping illegal
By CLARE KITTREDGE, Contributing Reporter
A lawyer for an accused child molester charged with using an interactive computer bulletin board to lure young boys into illicit sex contends that the state eavesdropped illegally on his client’s conversations. John D. Rex, Jr. was arrested March 1 and charged with statutory rape of two young boys, distributing harmful computerized data to minors, soliciting a kidnapping and making explosive materials. Prosecutors accused the Chelmsford man of using his bulletin board, which he dubbed the County Morgue, to entice young boys into sex and solicit at least two of the boys to find a young boy to have sex with. P. Scott Bratton, a Lowell attorney representing Rex, has filed a motion in the Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge asking a judge to suppress all eavesdropping evidence in the Rex case on grounds it was illegally obtained without a warrant.
“This case deals with the privacy rights of all citizens on the electronic superhighway.”
P. SCOTT BRATTON
Lowell Attorney
Bratton said yesterday it is the first time the issue of using search warrants to wiretap computer conversations has been tested in court in this state. “This case deals with the privacy rights of all citizens on the electronic superhighway,” Said Bratton, “just how far the government can go, and how sneaky they can be without a warrant.” But assistant district attorney Barbara Piselli said yesterday that the state did not need a warrant to eavesdrop on Rex. “We didn’t need one. We obtained search warrants when we were required to do so,” she said. Massachusetts wiretapping laws say the police need a search warrant to intercept a wire communication, but the police overlooked the issue in their rush to accuse his client, Bratton said. Bratton argues that state wiretapping laws do not apply only to telephone conversation, but to other communications over the telephone wires, including electronic bulletin boards. Piselli said that even if a judge throws out the wiretaps, the state’s case is solid because the young boys will testify against Rex.
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