Boeing worker's data case goes to jury

A King County jury began deliberations today in the case of a Boeing employee charged with leaking sensitive company information to reporters.

In closing arguments, attorneys drew starkly different metaphors for what Gerald Eastman did: His lawyer likened him to a guest who oversteps an invitation. Prosecutors said he was more like a sneak thief.

Eastman, an 18-year Boeing employee, is charged with 16 counts of first-degree computer trespass. Charges allege he spent hours every day surfing internal company Web sites and downloading more than 8,000 files police later found saved on his home computer, according to charging documents.

If convicted, Eastman, 46, faces 3- to 4- years in prison.

Boeing claimed that 16 stories in The Seattle Times contained information from downloaded documents

Defense attorney Ramona Brandes told a King County Superior Court jury that what Eastman allegedly did is perhaps best likened to a guest who unexpectedly intrudes on an invitation to dinner by, say, deciding to take a bath without saying anything.

The host might feel the guest "violated his trust," she told jurors. "Maybe he kicks you out. But you don't get prosecuted."

That's because the host granted the guest access to the home, and access is the central issue in the case against Eastman, which went to trial last week.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott Peterson's hypothetical went a little differently. Let's say you're a small-business owner, he told the jury. And you give some of your employees keys so that they can let themselves in to open up shop. Does that mean that you've authorized them to then take those keys and, when no one is looking, open private offices, unlock filing cabinets and take sensitive documents?

Or, said Peterson, how about this: When you leave your front door unlocked, does it mean you give a burglar authority to come in and take your possessions?

Eastman, who inspected engine mounts and tail pipes on Boeing's assembly line in Tukwila, was investigated after an anonymous tipster alleged to Boeing in April 2006 that Eastman had leaked information about aircraft designs, financial projections and production problems to reporters at The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

At the metal desk where Eastman sat just feet from the production floor, Boeing investigators discovered a purple cord protruding out of his company hard drive and going into a hole in the back of a locked drawer. There they found a "thumb drive" — a small, portable memory device, according to charging papers.

In order to convict, prosecutors have to prove that Eastman did not have authorization to access the information he's accused of taking, and attorneys have spent most of the week focused on that point.

Peterson said the evidence showed Eastman knew he didn't have authorization. The prosecutor pointed to a 2002 letter Eastman sent Boeing seeking money and improvements to the company's quality-control system in exchange for his silence. He also introduced copies of e-mails between Eastman and reporters, and Eastman's elaborate setup to search and copy company files.

"The ability to do something is not the authority to do something," said Peterson, who suggested Eastman took the files because he was angry that previous complaints about Boeing's procedures weren't taken seriously. "It strokes his ego," he told jurors.

But Brandes drew a sharp distinction between hacking into blocked company files, which Eastman is not accused of doing, and obtained files he was given access to by the Boeing computer system.

"Gerald Eastman did break the rules, but he didn't break the law," she said. "These aren't some secret, hidden shares ... these were shares that were easily accessible by anybody at Boeing. You don't like what he did? Well, fire him. Sue him. He broke his contract — that makes him a bad employee, but it doesn't make him a criminal."

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nsinger@seattletimes.com