Vistan to Stand Trial in Telephone Hacking : Crime: Former psychiatric patient is accused of jamming the lines of Palomar Medical Center dozens of times last year.

A 26-year-old Vista man was bound over for trial on 18 felony wiretapping charges Tuesday for allegedly tying up the lines at Palomar Medical Center for hours at a time on dozens of occasions last year.

Deputy Dist. Atty. James Valliant said he expects to file 15 more felony wiretapping charges against Rick Ivkovich, who allegedly used two touch-tone telephones to jam the lines of the Escondido hospital, bringing switchboard operators to tears.

Originally, Ivkovich had faced 81 charges of wiretapping and eavesdropping, but a judge dismissed the case in May because preliminary hearing testimony was based on hearsay.

In the preliminary hearing at Vista Municipal Court on Monday and Tuesday, 11 Palomar Medical Center operators testified that, from April to December of last year, a caller would tie up their switchboard, connect patients’ room telephones with other telephones, and connect the hospital telephone system with outside agencies such as 911 and the North County Transit District, Valliant said.

“In one instance, the tying up of the phone lines actually caused a delay in terms of doctors getting to patients in trauma care,” Valliant said outside of court.

“Seriously ill patients were disturbed in their rooms repeatedly, and, at one point, you could not call 911 in Escondido because their lines were tied up. Fortunately, nobody needed to call them,” Valliant said.

On other occasions, Ivkovich would connect a hospital telephone and an outside line and listen in on the conversation, which usually consisted of “Did you call? I didn’t call you,” Valliant said.

Valliant said eavesdropping charges were dropped because “there really wasn’t any confidential communication.”

Ivkovich’s parents, Richard and Patricia, said outside the courtroom that their son is being unfairly prosecuted.

“They are out to make an example of him to other telephone people,” Richard Ivkovich said.

Deputy Public Defender William Saunders could not be reached for comment, but has argued in the past that wiretapping requires some type of physical attachment onto telephone lines and that, since none occurred in this case, Ivkovich is not guilty.

Prosecutors believe that Ivkovich used two touch-tone telephones to grab control of the hospital’s PBX--private branch exchange--by dialing them very quickly simultaneously.

Attempts to track the telephone calls were unsuccessful until Escondido police, with the help of telephone experts, set a series of telephone “traps” that isolated a line and traced calls back to their point of origin.

Ivkovich had been a psychiatric patient at Palomar last year, his father said.

Valliant said Ivkovich developed a grudge against the hospital during the stay that led him to take revenge. It is less clear, however, why Ivkovich would involve the sheriff’s 911 lines and those of the bus station, Valliant said.