Webcam

Lynn Matsko wouldn't answer reporters' questions yesterday, but the look on her face said it all. She's had enough. Matsko, the Harriton High assistant vice principal at the center of the Lower Merion School District webcam scandal, choked back tears twice as she rebutted the "unjust and inaccurate" rumor that she had "spied" on a student through the camera embedded in his school-issued laptop. "I find the allegations and implications that I have, or ever would, engage in such conduct to be offensive, abhorrent and outrageous," said Matsko, the mother of two teenaged boys.

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday closed their investigation into Lower Merion School District's secret use of software to track student laptops, saying they found no evidence that anyone intentionally committed a crime. The decision, announced by U.S. Attorney Zane Memeger, ended a six-month probe by the FBI into allegations that district employees might have spied on students through webcams on their school-issued laptops. In a brief statement released by his office, Memeger didn't disclose details of the investigation, but said agents and prosecutors concluded that charges were unwarranted.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - A key prosecution witness in the trial of a former Rutgers University student accused of watching his roommate's intimate encounter via webcam testified Monday that she agreed to keep it a secret because it was shocking to see the images - but that it wasn't under wraps for long. "First of all, it was shocking. It felt wrong. We didn't expect to see that. . . . It was like we shouldn't have seen it," Molly Wei told jurors. "We didn't want people to know what had happened.

Prosecutors on Tuesday said they would not bring criminal charges in the Lower Merion School District webcam saga, ending their six-month probe into allegations that employees spied on students through laptops. U.S. Attorney Zane Memeger would not disclose details of the investigation except to say that agents and prosecutors concluded the evidence did not point to a crime. "For the government to prosecute a criminal case, it must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person charged acted with criminal intent," Memeger said in a brief statement released by his office.

It is a case built around many indisputable facts, most gleaned from the text messages, e-mails, and tweets that define the way a generation now communicates. But there are few clear answers in the disturbing account of how Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi's sexual encounter with a man in his dorm room was secretly viewed via his roommate's computer webcam. The incident has become the focus of international discussion about cyber-bullying and the difficulties faced by gay youth, a cause celebre fueled by intense media attention.

IT REMAINS unknown to the public exactly how many photos Lower Merion School District officials secretly snapped using the embedded webcams on laptops issued to high school students in the district. And the wealthy Montgomery County district, which is now under investigation by the FBI and local authorities, apparently is in no rush to turn that information over to the attorney who exposed the highly controversial "security feature" in a bombshell lawsuit last week. Mark Haltzman, who filed the invasion-of-privacy suit on behalf of a Harriton High School student, popped off at the district yesterday outside the Federal Courthouse in Philadelphia.

The laptops are locked away for the summer, new school policies drafted, court orders signed, and public apologies extended. But students and parents in the Lower Merion School District who hoped to begin the next school year with the webcam-monitoring furor behind them might think again. The lawsuit that first exposed the district's practice of secretly activating webcams on student laptops shows no signs of ending, with lawyers last week trading barbs over who was delaying the case and why. The U.S. Attorney's Office will not discuss its probe into the matter.

A Lower Merion student who alleged that Harriton High School officials used a webcam to spy on him, then made the charges stick in court, has been cited for vehicle-code violations in Lower Merion. Blake J. Robbins, 17, of the 400 block of Hidden River Road, Penn Valley, was cited Nov. 26 by Lower Merion police officer Stephen M. Salera for driving an unregistered vehicle and displaying a license plate on the wrong vehicle. Robbins and his parents, Michael and Holly, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Despite a hostile initial response from the Lower Merion School District, the lawyer handling the webcam lawsuit against it repeated his demand Monday to be paid more than $400,000 while the case is pending. In an Aug. 12 federal court filing, the district attacked attorney Mark S. Haltzman for a bill that it said "far exceeds the bounds of reasonableness" and for suing in the first place instead of going directly to school officials. Concerns over the webcam surveillance of Harriton High School student Blake Robbins, the district said, could have been handled without the expense of litigation.

The attorney for a former Lower Merion student who accused the district of spying on her via a laptop camera - the same accusation that won her brother a big settlement from the district - has asked a judge for permission to leave the case. Mary Elizabeth Bogan stated in her U.S. District Court filing Tuesday "that counsel has irreconcilable conflict with the client. " Last week, Bogan filed a complaint on behalf of Paige Robbins, 19, asserting that, according to a 2010 deposition given by Lindy Matsko, Harriton High School's assistant vice principal, the school district "remotely accessed the webcam feature on the laptop issued to the plaintiff while she was in the bathroom, or in the nude, or partially dressed or sleeping or in her bedroom in a compromised state.