Bail Denied in Worker Threat Case

A federal judge in New Hampshire denied bail Thursday for a man accused of using a Web site to threaten executives at Global Crossing Ltd., where he was twice fired.

But the judge threw out charges that Steven Sutcliffe had violated federal privacy laws by posting the Social Security numbers of thousands of Global Crossing employees on the site because he didn’t intend to use them for illegal purposes.

The case moves to a federal court in California, where Global Crossing maintains its executive offices.

Sutcliffe worked in the technical support department for the fiber-optic network company in Beverly Hills. Last year he was fired, rehired, and then fired again in September.

Global Crossing, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in January, had successfully sought an injunction to shut down Sutcliffe’s Web site last fall. But prosecutors said Sutcliffe relocated the site using several Web hosting services around the country and offshore.

He was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday at his home in Manchester, N.H., where he moved in the winter. His brother lives in nearby Auburn, and Sutcliffe’s lawyer said New Hampshire is Sutcliffe’s home state.

“We’re pretty happy he’s been apprehended,” Cynthia Artin, a spokeswoman for Global Crossing in Madison, N.J., said Thursday.

Prosecutors said the site includes threats against the company’s lawyer and other employees. They said Sutcliffe issued this message to one employee: “If you call my house again and threaten me, or my family, or ever appear near me, or my family, I will personally send you back to the hell from where you came.”

But Sutcliffe’s lawyer in New Hampshire, federal public defender Jonathan Saxe, urged Magistrate Judge John Muirhead to view the entire site to see the remarks in context.

Muirhead obliged, setting up three computers in the courtroom so that he, Sutcliffe, lawyers and spectators could see and hear the site.

Saxe demonstrated the site’s attempts at humor and Sutcliffe’s detailed arguments about his troubles with his former employer. He also pointed out a disclaimer that said “this site does not advocate, encourage or condone any conduct that is illegal at any time by any person.”

Saxe said if Sutcliffe had meant to carry out the threats, he wouldn’t have moved to New Hampshire.

“This is a cyber-imagination case,” Saxe said. “When we get into the real world, there is no indication he’s a problem.”

But prosecutor Arnold Huftalen pointed out a photo of a Global Crossing employee with her young daughter. The site also included the woman’s address and a link to a map to her house.

Afterward, Muirhead complimented Sutcliffe on his handiwork.

“That Web site is brilliantly conceived,” he said. “But it’s scary.”

Sutcliffe could face up to five years in prison if convicted.