Exam scam trial nears conclusion

BOSTON – With only six witnesses left to testify, the lengthy trial of Peabody Police Lt. Edward Bettencourt looks to be coming to a close.Associate Justice Margaret R. Hinkle said Tuesday that she expected to come to a decision over the weekend, if all goes according to plan, and it appears that such will happen. Prosecutors Kathleen Healey and Ina Howard-Hogan announced at the end of court Wednesday that questioning for the remaining witnesses will follow the same quickness as the last few who testified in the afternoon.Six witnesses were sworn under oath yesterday, including David Swan of the Attorney General’s Office, Sunguk Park, Senior Applications Developer for the Massachusetts Human Resources Division, and four Peabody police officers.Swan described in great detail the process of investigating two hard drives from within the Peabody Police Station for internet history and user login information. While being questioned by defense attorney Douglas Louison, it was revealed that the user number assigned specifically to Bettencourt had been logged into throughout a three-day span, during times that Bettencourt was not on duty. He went into even further detail by saying that his user number was logged on just seconds after midnight, when Bettencourt’s shift was to begin on Dec. 25, 2004; however, such information conflicts with video footage showing Bettencourt entering the station minutes after.”We cannot see through walls. We cannot see through computer screens,” said Swan, noting that it could have very well been possible for someone else to be using the computer at the time. “All we know is (his user number) was logged into that computer.”Louison clarified by saying that if the user ID was already logged on to a computer, which Peabody Police Lt. John McCorry later testified to, someone else could have searched for confidential information and created the false accounts.However, Swan later noted that other documents were found on the hard drive, such as America Online emails from Bettencourt.Time discrepancies came up in court once again when Park explained that computers within the station were set to Greenwich Mean Time, as opposed to Eastern Standard Time; however he said that the time posted on the server would not be affected.Park was first asked to track access to the Civil Service Exam Applicant Web site after “strange transactions” were found. The strange transactions he refers to are the creation of 21 accounts from within the Peabody Police Station during the wee hours of Christmas morning in 2004. Bettencourt stands accused of unauthorized computer access and creating such accounts to look up the promotional exam scores of fellow police officers.McCorry, who works as a watch commander from 4 p.m. to midnight, explained that his responsibilities, similar to those of Bettencourt on the night of the alleged crime, often requires him to leave the watch commander’s office to patrol the streets, handle calls, and check on prisoners, specifically if no other supervisors are on duty that night. Such was the case Bettencourt worked on Christmas morning just over three years ago.McCorry also testified to viewing other police officers using the computer in the watch commander’s office from time to time, and often under someone else’s user login number. He, himself, admitted to forgetting to log out on occasion before the end of his shift, therefore, inevitably allowing others to use his computer under his name. He did, however, say that such practices do not take place today, as the station is now more secure.Another key aspect in McCorry’s testimony was in regards to the dispatch time log. He said that times should be recorded as soon as an officer is dispatched to a call, or as soon as an officer calls in a report to the dispatcher, but that’s not always the case. He said that there are times when the dispatcher might be too busy or an officer waits until the end of his stop before reporting the incident.If Bettencour