Posted on: Saturday, May 12, 2001

Tee-time tinkerers won't go to prison

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

Two men who came up with a way to get preferred starting times for themselves and their friends at city golf courses by tampering with computers at their Verizon Hawaii workplace were given a chance yesterday to have their criminal cases dropped.

Harmon Lee, 54, and Lawrence Seu, 61, both of Mililani, pleaded guilty in March to unauthorized computer use, a felony, which could have drawn prison terms of up to five years.

But Circuit Judge Richard Perkins granted their request for a deferred acceptance of a guilty plea. The judge ruled that the cases will be erased from their records if they both perform 250 hours of community service, pay $100 to the state's crime victims compensation fund and stay out of trouble — and off city golf courses — for five years.

Neither man had a criminal record.

While the two men did not deprive the city of any money, they did tinker with Verizon's computers to make sure their calls got through to make reservations for the most favored starting times at the municipal courses.

Lee and Seu were "customer zone technicians" who worked the overnight shift at Verizon. They were accused of blocking calls to the automated tee-time system at least 11 times between March and August 2000 to get starting times between 9 and 10 a.m. at public courses including Ala Wai, 'Ewa Villages and Pali.

Lee was suspended and Seu is now retired.

When the two men pleaded guilty to the charges in March, their attorney, Scott Collins, said the two "had no idea their conduct was criminal in nature."