Deputy Attorney General Fights High Technology Crime
by Chris Krueger

When Robert Morgester helped found the Sacramento Valley High Tech Crime Task Force in December 1995, high technology crime typically involved employees of computer chip manufacturers who would steal chips by sticking them under their clothing and walking out the door.

Today, chips are cheap, and high technology thieves prefer to steal finished goods. The growth of high technology crimes has resulted in a corresponding growth of the task force. It includes 52 employees from 31 different law enforcement agencies led by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. [Ed note: see Menz article for description of high tech crimes.]

Sacramento County Sheriff's Department Lieutenant Mike Tsuchida, supervisor of the task force, credits Morgester with spearheading its growth and evolution. "Take (Morgester) out of the picture and we wouldn't be here today," Tsuchida said. "He couldn't have done it by himself, but without him it couldn't have happened."

Morgester, 37, describes his involvement with the task force as the result of a fortuitous circumstance that gave him the chance to combine his professional career as a prosecutor and his private avocation as a self-described "closet geek."

"When I was in high school I saw my first Apple Computer. I looked at it, and I thought it was cool. So there's a bit of a nerd running through me."

With a degree in a psychology from CSUS and his law degree from McGeorge School of Law, Morgester joined the Sacramento district attorney's office in 1989. In 1993, he transferred into the career criminal prosecution unit. By 1994, he began seeing an increase in cases involving the theft of chips and other computer components. Apple Computer's plant in Laguna was a major target.

"For a prosecutor who likes Apple I was in heaven," Morgester recalled. "I got to go see the Apple plant."

Through his work, Morgester became acquainted with Brian Rauschhuber, then-director of security for Apple in Laguna. Rauschhuber told Morgester that he was frustrated with the inadequate response by law enforcement to the chip theft then running rampant. Rauschhuber also got to know Tsuchida, then a sergeant with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department's SLUG Unit, a pro-active burglary detail. Tsuchida soon began catching chip thieves whom Morgester would prosecute. "Mike quickly realized these folks weren't very underground. Because nobody investigated them they were pretty much on the top. With just a little work we started catching people left and right."

Despite these early successes, Morgester said it soon became obvious that a coordinated effort was necessary to combat high technology crime. Because of the large amounts of money involved, the crimes often stretched across the jurisdictional boundaries of several law enforcement agencies. Those agencies often did not communicate with each other or lacked the resources and trained personnel to deal with the crimes.

Tsuchida recalls that Rauschhuber and Morgester began promoting the idea of a coordinated effort to fight high technology crime. "I was kind of resistant because I was just a detective. I already had 40 cases. But Robert and Rauschhuber kept harping on me."

Eventually, five leading computer manufacturers, Apple, Intel, Hewlett Packard, NEC, and Packard Bell, jokingly referred to as the "Five Families," began meeting with law enforcement officials to plan a coordinated response.

After several meetings, Morgester proposed to Sacramento District Attorney Jan Scully that she invite local politicians, law enforcement personnel, representatives of the Five Families, and others in high tech industry to a conference to address high tech crime. At this gathering in September 1995, then-Undersheriff Lou Blanas volunteered the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department to serve as lead agency around which a four-county (Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, and El Dorado) task force would be created.

Two months after that fateful meeting, the task force was formed. "I was in the middle of it with him, but (Morgester), because of his legal training, was able to facilitate cooperation," Tsushida said.

From 1995 to 1997, Morgester assisted in prosecutions and investigations by the task force. He also began the search for funding. Blanas had committed the Sheriff's Department to housing the task force and assigned it a sergeant and two detectives, and other agencies had also made contributions, but prosecution of high tech crime, because it involves the use of technology, was expensive.

After an initial attempt to get state funding was rejected by the Legislature, Morgester approached the California Department of Justice in March 1996 for assistance. The result was the California High Tech Task Force Committee. Within six months the committee developed a framework for a statewide grant program to promote the development of high technology task forces. Morgester worked with state Senator Patrick Johnston to draft Senate Bill 438, which added Chapter 5.7 of the Penal Code, relating to computer crimes, and created the grant program. Morgester also drafted subsequent legislation in 1998 that expanded funding for regional task forces.

Presently, there are five high technology task forces in California. The Governor's Office of Criminal Justice Planning administers grants to these programs.

In 1999, Morgester joined the Attorney General's Office. In addition to working on state and federal appellate litigation, Morgester continues to advise local and state agencies on high technology legal issues impacting criminal investigations.

For Morgester, his current position represents the fruition of years of hard work. Under a new program started earlier this year by Attorney General Bill Lockyer, one Deputy Attorney General is assigned to each of the five task forces. Morgester has been assigned to the Sacramento task force.

Morgester's present job duties include answering questions from investigators, reviewing search warrant applications, participating directly in investigations, and participating directly in prosecutions if necessary. Morgester also fields inquiries from across the nation as the contact person for the United States Department of Justice's 24/7 computer crime program. He also teaches law enforcement officers around the state about legal issues related to high tech crime.

Morgester predicts that computer intrusion, in which hackers gain unauthorized entry to someone else's computer system will be on the rise as more people use cable modems for their Internet service. Because cable modem users leave their Internet connections operative, they are easy targets for intruders unless they erect fire walls.

The near-ubiquity of computers in our society has also led criminals to use them as tools to commit traditional crimes ranging from drug dealing to murder, Morgester said. As an example, he cited the December 2000 prosecution of Thomas Soria, Sr. for the murder of a young girl in Nevada.. According to Tsuchida, the Sacramento task force assisted Nevada authorities by conducting a forensic analysis of the hard drive of Soria's computer. That analysis resulted in the discovery of 17 deleted computer files in which Soria described the victim and the crime prior to the attack. Soria was prosecuted based on this evidence, a prosecution that was terminated when Soria committed suicide in prison.

Tsuchida said that even though forensic analysis of hard drives is difficult - one investigation takes 1000 hours - the value of the results far outweighs the problems. The Soria case was the third or fourth case since the creation of the task force in which a murder plot was discovered on a hard drive.

Of Morgester's role in the task force's creation and operation, Tsuchida said, "Robert has much to be proud of."