Lancaster Coroner charged in press leak

Criminal charges were filled on February 5 against Lancaster County Coroner George Gary Kirchner for allowing reporters unauthorized access to the county wide 911 system.
Kirchner allegedly gave his computer account information to members of the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal and allowed them to access the county 911-call database. The database contains confidential information such as names and addresses of victims.
The Pennsylvanian Attorney General Public Corruption Unit was called in after the Lancaster paper ran a story about a “suspicious death” and credited information to the Lancaster County 911 system.
The information used in the article was not publicly available and raised the suspicions of officials. A grand jury was convened to investigate the leaked information.
According to the testimony of Lancaster County computer crimes Detective Christopher Erb, the database includes “names of alleged perpetrators, witnesses and victims; details of crimes that would only be known to perpetrators”.
The Lancaster County 911 system offers a publicly accessible website were basic information about the emergency calls can be found. The information outlined by Detective Erb is not contained in the public site
Erb explained that even an authorized user would be faced with this message and would need to click “next” to enter the secure portion of the site..
The confidential portion of the website displays a warning message that states, “This is a Governmental computer system, which may be accessed and used only for official Government business by authorized personnel.”
In a statement the Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbertt said "Publicizing confidential law enforcement information can compromise official investigations and jeopardize the safety of witnesses or citizens who file complaints"
The Lancaster Intelligencer Journal “suspicious death” article described that a property owner had been showing prospective buyers the building when he encountered the dead woman and called 911.
At issue was a quote credited to the Lancaster County 911 site reading “After using his key to unlock the door, the owner found the woman naked and unresponsive inside”
This level of detail is not available from the public portion of the 911 website and a reporter with the competing Lancaster New Era contacted county officials.
County 911 officials began to trace the connections into the system and discovered that a computer owned by the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal had accessed the secure site.
Lancaster County Communications Information Specialist Todd Zimmerman told the grand jury that the newspaper computer had logged on the to 911 system “on August 21, 2005, at 3:20 p.m. and 4:20 p.m.”
Zimmerman explained that a unique Internet address proved the computer was physically located at the newspapers office but the username was of the County Coroner Gary Kirchner.
The grand jury was presented with emails between Kirchner and a Intelligencer Journal reporter, Brett Lovelace.
“I used to rely on the coroner web-CAD and it saved me from always calling you about stuff. The less phone calls the better. It would be a big favor to me, if you could get me back online.” Wrote Lovelace after Kirchner’s password was changed.
Five reporters for the Intelligencer Journal were subpoenaed and all agreed after being granted immunity from prosecution.
George Werner, an attorney for the paper told ABC Channel 27 “We do not believe anything was compromised. It was very basic information."
Carrie Cassidy, a former reporter testified that Kirchner had offered her access to the website instead of calling him.
Kirchner is facing third degree felony charges of unlawful use of a computer and $15,000 in fines if convicted.
The case has raised concerns of media ethics with members of the media testifying against sources.
Michael Berry, A Philadelphia media lawyer told the Inquirer that the investigation was “alarming”. Others have speculated that the prosecution was partly motivated by a political disagreement between the Lancaster County District Attorney Don Totaro and Kirchner.