District Attorney Busted

rpanic

Golden Member
Dec 1, 2006
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http://www.dallasnews.com/shar....Edition1.466c73e.html

Rockwall County District Attorney Ray Sumrow used server for personal items, expert says

Rockwall County: At trial, prosecutors allege office funds bought computer


12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, March 11, 2008
By ELIZABETH LANGTON / The Dallas Morning News
elangton@dallasnews.com

A computer that Rockwall County District Attorney Ray Sumrow says he built as a backup server for his office contained documents related to eBay sales, personal e-mails and a cheat sheet for a computer game( what a ASS), an FBI computer expert testified Monday morning.

Rod Gregg, an FBI senior forensic examiner, said 80 percent of the content he found on the computer appeared to be personal rather than work-related.

Mr. Sumrow is being tried in Dallas on charges of forgery, theft and records tampering. As part of the case, prosecutors allege that he used office funds to buy the computer for personal use.

"I would not configure a backup computer in that way," Mr. Gregg said.

"When I saw that, I did not think of anything related to a government agency," he said.

The computer ? equipped with two hard drives, seven fans, high-end video and audio cards, a wireless Internet connection and cables that glow under ultraviolet light ? is designed for playing video games, prosecutors say.

Alan Timberlake, assistant director of information technology for Rockwall County, called the computer "gimmicky" and more suited to a college dorm room than an office.

Defense attorney James Wheeler said Mr. Sumrow built the computer from parts he purchased on sale.

Mr. Sumrow paid for the parts with a check drawn on the district attorney's "fee fund," which contains fees collected from hot-check writers.

Under state law, the district attorney can spend the money on office expenses such as supplies, equipment and employee salaries.

Prosecutors allege that Mr. Sumrow used it as a "personal slush fund." He bought computer equipment for his own use and to resell for personal profit, among other illegal expenditures, they have said.

Mr. Wheeler has repeatedly stated that the district attorney has sole discretion over how to spend the fund.

Testimony will resume today and is expected to last through at least midweek.

Mr. Sumrow could face two more trials related to the alleged misuse of money dedicated to operating his office.



Edit: here is a pic of him.
http://gizmodo.com/assets/reso...s/2008/03/da-gamer.jpg


I am so surprised they caught this guy and there was no pron, always good to see where my hard earned tax dollars are going. And I thought it was bad browsing AT at work.
 

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
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I guess there's more to the story than I know, but seems an over-reaction to prosecute a guy for beefing up his office PC with better components.

Maybe he's a bit of gamer/slacker. Big whoop just fire him.

Course, I can relate. Most of my office's PCs have gaming gfx cards for LAN action with UT. :D

Fern
 

ScottMac

Moderator<br>Networking<br>Elite member
Mar 19, 2001
5,471
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An old favorite cartoon:

A suit standing next to a Geek looking at a PC on a desktop:

"Well sir, if you want that Accounts Receivable report out on time, we're gonna need to replace that Joystick..."

(the visual helps alot, sorry)

 

RichardE

Banned
Dec 31, 2005
10,246
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More personal vendetta shit from the FBI. Maybe they can go after the big fish once and a while instead of being a tool to someone with a grudge like they have been lately.
 

WHAMPOM

Diamond Member
Feb 28, 2006
7,628
183
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Does this compare with the guy in the next office with the cuppo-twelve hundred dollar
fancy coffee-chino machine?

GEEEEZZZZ! That's cheap, ten grand for a high end coffee machine!
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,816
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doesn't everyone have a FireGL V8650, 16GB ram, and dual-quad cores in their backup machine? :confused:
 

rpanic

Golden Member
Dec 1, 2006
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Originally posted by: loki8481
doesn't everyone have a FireGL V8650, 16GB ram, and dual-quad cores in their backup machine? :confused:

Don?t forget the ultraviolet lights for that bling bling pc look. ;)
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,816
83
91
Originally posted by: rpanic
Originally posted by: loki8481
doesn't everyone have a FireGL V8650, 16GB ram, and dual-quad cores in their backup machine? :confused:

Don?t forget the ultraviolet lights for that bling bling pc look. ;)

if not for the window, uv lights, and upc, how else would you find your backup server in the event of a blackout? :p
 

LittleNemoNES

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2005
4,142
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The truth is the only reason he was caught, I imagine, is cos of the clear side + UV lights.

If he would have bought a boring server case no one would have noticed.
 

superstition

Platinum Member
Feb 2, 2008
2,219
221
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I know a university department head who gets a top of the line new computer every year. He also has a very nice salary considering the few hours he puts in and the way he passes work off to people who shouldn't even be doing it. Let's also not neglect his neglect of basic duties like performing job evaluations for employees so they can receive their yearly cost of living salary increase.