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The long-running case of a former Connecticut substitute teacher accused of exposing students to pornography has ended in a plea deal.  

In 2004 Julie Amero was assigned to cover a 7th grade classroom at Kelly Middle School in Norwich.  Not long after the day began, a deluge of pornographic pop-up ads flooded the screen on her classroom computer. Several students said they saw the graphic images. Amero, who describes herself as a “computer illiterate” , was arrested and charged with risk of injury to a minor.  

Prosecutors argued that she was searching the web for porn during class.  Amero insisted that she was the victim of an outdated school computer with no security protections. In January 2007, she was found guilty of 4 felony counts and faced up to 40 years in prison. The case provoked a storm of reaction from computer experts nationwide.

"What we found was that there were significant errors during the trial."
 
Alex Eckelberry is head of Sunbelt Software, a Florida-based anti-spyware firm that conducted a forensic examination of the computer’s hard drive.

"We were able to paint a pretty good picture of what occurred that morning and in our belief there was a gross miscarriage of justice.  There were  pop-up storms and she simply did not have the training and did not have the understanding as to how to resolve the situation that she was in."

In June 2007 a Superior Court judge threw out Amero’s conviction saying that testimony during the trial was “flawed”.  Amero was awaiting a new trial when she reached Friday’s plea deal.  She  pleaded guilty to a single count of disorderly conduct.  She’ll give up her teaching license and pay a $100 fine.  Again Alex Eckelberry.

"Its still a bitter pill to swallow.  This thing should never have happened in the first place.  The fact that she still had to plead to lesser charge was disappointing.  On the other hand we all recognize that she had to move on with her life."

Eckelberry argues that computer technology is very nuanced but was dangerously oversimplified in this case. And he says schools need to be more careful in the way they train teachers to use computers.

New London State’s Attorney Michael Regan said the state was prepared to go to trial again, but chose not to because of Amero’s ill health.