Larry Kline
Havre Daily News
lkline@havredailynews.com
The Hill County Attorney's Office has filed charges against a Havre man accused of breaking into Sunnyside Intermediate School and using school computers to access the Internet.
A school official said today that computer records show the man attempted to access pornographic Web sites, but the computer system's firewall prevented him from doing so.
Havre police officers arrested Michael C. Franson, 18, at 12:46 a.m. Friday, police Lt. Russ Ostwalt said today. According to a state District Court document, Franson is charged with one felony count of burglary and misdemeanor counts of unlawful use of a computer and criminal mischief. He is being held in the Hill County Detention Center on $10,000 bond and is set to appear for arraignment on July 19. The charges were filed Friday afternoon.
The Havre Police Department had received a number of reports of break-ins at Sunnyside for about a month, Ostwalt said. Initially, officers were able to ascertain that someone had been prying open windows and doors, but were unable to find anything missing from the building. School technicians checked computer records and discovered that someone had been logging onto the Internet, Havre Public Schools director of operations Ric Floren said today.
Ostwalt said Franson's name was in the computer records.
Two officers were patrolling the building early Friday and found Franson in one of the rooms, Ostwalt said.
The court document said Franson accessed pornographic Web sites from the school's computers.
Floren said he turned over documents to police that list pornographic Web sites that someone had attempted to access. He added that those sites had not actually been accessed.
"Fortunately, our firewall prevented him from getting onto (pornographic) sites," he said. "He did get into some chat rooms. That's where our records indicate he spent the vast majority of his time."
A felony charge of burglary carries a maximum punishment of 20 years imprisonment and up to $50,000 in fines. The two misdemeanor charges each carry a maximum punishment of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
