[WIham] Wis. State Journal 11/14/03: Broadcast of porn tipped police in emergency channels case

[Rick Kisséll]

Broadcast of porn tipped police in emergency channels case
11:14 PM 11/14/03
Barry Adams Police reporter

The man accused of interfering with emergency radio channels in Madison 
over the past nine months may have broadcast audio from pornographic 
movies over police airwaves, officials and the man's roommate said Friday. 

Police say the porn, which aired Tuesday night, let them know the 
interference was intentional. 

Rajib K. Mitra, 25, a UW-Madison student, has a criminal past involving 
computer hacking. 

Mitra is a "ham" radio operator with a degree in computer science. He 
was arrested Thursday after police searched his near West Side apartment. 

According to a search warrant, police were looking for radio and 
computer equipment and pornographic audio and video. 

Mitra was in the Dane County Jail Friday. He has been tentatively 
charged with 16 felony counts of computer crimes and could also face 
federal charges, according to police.

Police hope that Mitra's arrest ends months of sporadic, frustrating 
interference with their radios. 

The problems first surfaced in the State Street area and later arose in 
a one-mile radius of the intersection of North Orchard and Regent 
streets. Mitra lived in an apartment on North Orchard. 

A motive has not been determined, said Detective Cynthia Murphy. The 
interference usually left radios dead for stretches from a few seconds 
to about 20 minutes but never on a regular schedule, adding to the 
difficulty of tracking the source, said Al Schwoegler, the city's 
communication operations supervisor. 

The interference came at times when police were dispatched on calls, 
meaning the person jamming may have monitored police radio traffic. 

"He had to be knowledgeable about the system," said Schwoegler. "When we 
changed frequencies the jammer changed frequencies." 

Police worked with the radio manufacturer Motorola, area cellular phone 
companies, UW-Madison officials and amateur radio operators. 

Ralph Pellegrini, 45, of Sun Prairie, is a ham operator and technician 
for Sprint PCS who assisted police. He said a cellular site near State 
Street was among the things first considered as a source of the 
interference. 

Officials probably found the source of the signal by using a device that 
can detect signals from one direction, Pellegrini said. The signal gets 
stronger the closer you get to the source. Buildings and the geography 
likely complicated the search. "The city radio guys have to get really a 
lot of credit because they were working in an environment that's pretty 
bad," he said. 

In most of the incidents, radios appeared to malfunction. But on 
Halloween night, a steady tone was broadcast at various times until 
about 4 a.m. Nov. 1. 

Police near State Street patrolling the massive celebrations worked on a 
different frequency, but other officers, paramedics and firefighters in 
a one-mile radius of Mitra's apartment experienced problems. It forced 
officials to keep switching channels. 

"It was a cat and mouse game. We moved and he moved," Schwoegler said. 
"Of all of the nights to do this." 

On Tuesday night, pornographic audio was broadcast 13 times in two- to 
three-second bursts for about 20 minutes, Schwoegler said. 

In August, Mitra moved from North Lake Street to an apartment at 10 N. 
Orchard St., Schwoegler said. 

His roommate, Lisa Albright, 21, a UW-Madison senior from Monroe, said 
she met Mitra in 2001 through her sister, who had met him on the Internet. 

Albright said Mitra rarely spoke to her, stayed in his room, which was 
filled with computer equipment, and seemed to have few friends. Albright 
said Mitra met his girlfriend from Stevens Point on the Internet. 

On Thursday, Albright was doing an experiment in a bacteriology class 
when she was pulled from class by two plainclothes investigators. She 
was questioned by police and the FBI for four hours. 

"I had no idea what was going on. They just said something serious had 
happened," Albright said. "By the end of it I was bawling." 

Besides tearing apart Mitra's small bedroom, they also searched 
Albright's bedroom and car, took her computer and videotapes. 

"They just couldn't believe I lived with him and didn't know anything," 
said Albright. "It's just unreal." 

Rebecca Truszynski, 21, lives next door. On Thursday police were in the 
ceiling looking for wires that may have led to a transmitter on the roof. 

"It's kind of creepy. The whole time the police were here it was a 
weird, eerie feeling," she said. 



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