CAMARILLO : Man Charged With Theft of Computer Files

A Ventura County prosecutor on Monday asked a jury to convict a former maintenance supervisor at Camarillo-based Siemens Solar Industries of stealing confidential computer files from the company.

George Stockhausen, 46, is charged with burglary and unlawful access of a computer. He faces up to three years in state prison on each count.

On Feb. 27, a Siemens security guard saw Stockhausen, 46, illegally downloading computer files in the company’s legal office, Deputy Dist. Atty. Donna W. Thonis told the Superior Court jury Monday.

She played a tape-recorded interview in which Stockhausen admitted to Siemens’ private investigators that he entered the locked office from a rooftop and copied some computer files.

The burglary of the legal office occurred hours after Siemens filed a lawsuit against Atlantic Richfield Co. alleging that Arco had failed to disclose problems at its Arco Solar plant before selling it to Siemens in 1989. Siemens attorney Dana Chambliss said the burglary may have been intended to get information about the suit.

But Stockhausen, who was fired, said he was just trying to get information on another Siemens employee rumored to have failed a drug test, according to the tape.

Chambliss testified that she had warned Stockhausen and other Siemens employees against entering the private legal office.

Prosecutor Thonis told the jury that Stockhausen should be convicted regardless of his intent because it is illegal to copy computer files without permission.

Thonis has not implicated Arco in the burglary. Atlantic Richfield officials have denied charges in the civil lawsuit but could not be reached Monday for comment on the Stockhausen case.

In a brief, one-minute opening statement, defense attorney Kenneth B. Frank said Stockhausen “was operating in the scope of his duty” when he copied the files, which Stockhausen said he later discarded on the highway.

The case is expected to go to the jury in Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr.’s courtroom this morning.