Deatherage sentenced

[johnt@meaddata.com (John Townsend)]

FYI...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                         Copyright 1994 Southam Inc.
                                Calgary Herald

                     July 10, 1994, Sunday, FINAL EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A11

LENGTH: 723 words

HEADLINE: SEX WITH TEEN NETS 3 YEARS

BYLINE: SANDRA GONZALES, KNIGHT-RIDDER

BODY: Man met boy through on-line bulletin board

   SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Just months after his sexual exploits startled computer
users nationwide, a remorseful Cupertino man was sentenced to more than three
years in prison Friday for his sadomasochistic encounter with a boy he met
through an on-line service.

   "I apologize to this court and this county," Donald "Matthew" Deatherage
told a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge.

   Deatherage's March arrest sparked debate on computer bulletin boards
throughout the country as well as a letter-writing campaign in his defence. But
more significant, it alerted parents to the potential danger in what many
thought was an innocent way for their children to communicate with others.

   Shackled at the waist and wearing a jail-issued brown shirt reserved for
inmates in special, protective custody, Deatherage, 27, said he had been racked
with guilt over what he had done and understood the fear that his case
generated.

   Despite Deatherage's professed remorse, Judge Charles Gordon sentenced him to
three years and four months in prison, one year shy of the maximum.

   "Many of your feelings are misguided," said Gordon, who received more than
150 letters seeking leniency for Deatherage. "Love is not just sex."

   Gordon said he did not give Deatherage the maximum term because he took into
consideration the Apple Computer engineer's lack of criminal history and early
no-contest plea to two counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor and
one count of sodomy.

   Still, Gordon mentioned the vulnerability of the 14-year-old boy -- who went
by the computer tag "Mr. Alone" -- and the prosecutor noted the concern the case
brought to parents who buy computers for their children.

   "In the minds of people in this community, they've purchased computers so
their children can be educated and use them for their benefit, not so that they
would be subject to the kind of acts that the defendant perpetrated on the
victim on this case," Deputy District Attorney Hector Moreno Jr. said.

   Deatherage's lawyer, Dennis Alan Lempert, painted a different picture of the
defendant, describing him as a "good man who had done a lot of good throughout
his life."

   Lempert also lashed out at the media and prosecutor, whom he says vilified
Deatherage.

   Prosecutors and police, however, believe a strong message was needed as a
warning to others who use computers to meet underage sexual partners or transmit
illegal pornography.

   South Bay police and other agencies are seeing a small but growing number of
cases in which pedophiles make contact with children through computer services.

   Usually, pedophiles strike up conversations on computer bulletin boards with
children, who gain access to them through a modem and local telephone call.
After gaining the trust of a youngster, the adult asks the child to switch to
private e-mail where they can communicate sexually.

   Deatherage, who went by the tag "Headshaver," met the boy in December after
the teenager began using America Online, which co-operated in the investigation.

   Deatherage told authorities he initially thought the boy was at least 18. The
two were communicating on line two to three times a week when they arranged to
meet.

   Deatherage picked up the boy at his Monterey County home on New Year's Eve
and drove him to the alley of a store parking lot where he handcuffed and
blindfolded the boy.

   When the pair arrived at Deatherage's home, they began an encounter that
included belts and leg restraints and various sadomasochistic sexual activities,
which included shaving off the boy's hair.

   Authorities learned of the relationship after the boy's father searched his
son's computer files and found the sexually explicit e-mail conversations
between Deatherage and the teenager.

   His father later described the boy as still in a state of shock and said the
encounter was his son's first sexual experience.

   Deatherage has maintained that his relationship with the boy was his first
with a minor and that eight of his homosexual relationships in the past eight
years were with men he met through the on-line service, according to his
probation report.

   He stated that, in the past, his contacts with underage boys were limited to
offering advice and help, particularly to those who seemed vulnerable.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
// John Townsend           "We have become hostage            Support Services/
// Mead Data Central        to [MDC's] Lexis/Nexis."              LifeCycle
// 9595 Springboro Pike       -- George Stephanopoulos       johnt@meaddata.com
// Miamisburg, OH  45342                                         (513) 865-7250