WWW- The founder of a company that runs answering services for doctors tried to destroy a competitor by hacking into the firm’s computer so that patients heard either a busy signal or sexual moaning when they tried to call their physicians, Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro said yesterday.
Gerald Martin, 37, of Pawling, also made crank calls to his rival’s employees, dispatched a moving truck to its headquarters and sent its customers forged papers indicating it was being audited by the state, Pirro said.
She said the case was “a fascinating example of when competition crosses the line into criminal behavior.” Martin interfered with “the sacrosanct ability of a patient to call a doctor,” Pirro said.
Stuart Hayman, president of the Westchester County Medical Society, said the alleged crime “could have prevented thousands of patients from reaching their physicians in emergency situations and . . . could have led to further illness, injury and even death.”
He said each company serves more than 1,000 physicians around the country.
Pirro said one patient in California had to be rushed to an emergency room after failing to reach a doctor because of the alleged interference.
She said Martin was a founder and vice president of Emergency Response Answering Service Inc. of Tarrytown.
He had once worked for the targeted company now known as Statcomm but formed the new firm after an “acrimonious breakup.”
The DA said the complaint specifies that for three days in November, Martin “interfered with the ability of Statcomm to conduct business” by hacking into the computer so that patients heard either a busy signal or “groaning, moaning in a sexual nature.”
He also had a moving company show up at Statcomm with a phony order to pick up six boxes of Statcomm material for the state Department of Taxation and Finance, she said.
In addition, he made “crank and threatening phone calls” to Statcomm employees and sent forged audit announcements to 160 Statcomm customers, Pirro said.
She said Martin’s actions were “childish but something that we consider to be criminal behavior.”
Martin was charged in White Plains court with computer tampering and possession of a forged instrument. The maximum prison term would be 2 1/3 to seven years.
A woman answering a phone at Emergency Response Answering Service refused to comment and refused to give her name; messages left at other numbers were not immediately returned.