Thursday, March 16, 2006

Give To The Stephen Heller Legal Defense Fund

Stephen Heller is a whistleblower

He is alleged to have seen and then exposed legal documents
proving that Diebold Election Systems, Inc., the country's leading manufacturer of electronic voting machines and voting machine software, was using illegal, uncertified software in their California voting machines, thereby defrauding the state of California, the taxpayers of California, and disenfranchising the voters of California.

Did California applaud this courageous whistleblower, and prosecute Diebold for defrauding California?

No.


What happened to Diebold:
Diebold was not prosecuted. Instead, California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson (Republican, running again in November '06) recently approved the use of Diebold voting machines throughout California for the November election. He did this after Stephen Heller exposed the fraud, and despite research reports from the GAO and a UC Berkeley research team, which exposed numerous hardware and software flaws that make Diebold machines imminently hackable! This is a travesty of enormous proportions. This is an outrageous abuse of the law and of power.


What happened to Heller: On February 21, 2006, Stephen Heller was charged in Los Angeles Superior Court with 3 felonies: felony access to computer data, commercial burglary and receiving stolen property. He pleaded not guilty.


Stephen Heller is running out of money to pay his legal defense bills. The blogosphere is coming to his aid. Please consider donating a few bucks!

* * * * *
Hello everyone,

This is Michele Gregory, Stephen Heller's wife. Once again, Stephen and I thank you for all of your help and support. Your encouragement and kind words have been invaluable to us in this very difficult and frightening time.

As you know, Stephen has been charged with some very serious crimes for allegedly blowing the whistle on Diebold Election Systems. He has pleaded innocent to all charges. He needed the very best legal defense, but criminal defense attorneys are very expensive. So far, starting in August of 2004, we have covered Stephen's legal bills with our personal savings and by taking a second mortgage on our house. Our savings are now gone, and our credit is strained.

And so, with the help of some friends, I have started the Stephen Heller Legal Defense Fund and corresponding website.

For more detailed information about this case and how to donate, please go to http://www.hellerlegaldefensefund.com/ . The site has details on Stephen's case, news, press articles, blog posts, and information about the defense fund, including detailed information on how it is run and how you can donate, should you wish to.

Whether or not you are able to donate, please pass the website around to everyone you know. Stephen's lawyer has said that public awareness of his situation will be beneficial to his defense.

Thank you all for all you have done, are doing, and will do. Stephen and I are in your debt; you have our gratitude.

With love,

Michele Gregory
Proud and loving wife of Stephen Heller

* * * * *
Should you wish to donate with a check, please make the check out to "The Stephen Heller Legal Defense Fund" and mail it to:

The Stephen Heller Legal Defense Fund
c/o Michele D. Gregory, Fund Administrator
17216 Saticoy St., Box 234
Van Nuys, CA 91406-2103

The fund itself is a non-interest bearing, FDIC insured checking account opened on March 7, 2006 at the First Federal Bank of California, Encino branch. Stephen's name is not on the account and he does not have access to the money. Monies can only be used for payments to Stephen's attorneys, and the account has been set up after advice from attorneys and with full transparency.

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