Computer engineer keeping quiet on lockout SAN FRANCISCO He appears in court on 4 felony charges -$5 billion bail hit

The San Francisco computer engineer charged with masterminding a cyber-coup of the city's network is being paid as he sits in jail, refusing to allow other administrators to get into the system that controls e-mails, law enforcement records and payroll documents, authorities said Tuesday.

Terry Childs, 43, of Pittsburg, who earns a six-figure salary with the city Technology Department, appeared in court Tuesday on four felony counts of computer tampering before being returned to his jail cell. He is being held in lieu of $5 million bail, an amount his lawyer called "crazy."

According to prosecutors, Childs, who has a 25-year-old criminal record in Kansas for aggravated robbery, locked out all other administrators from the city's computer system after they started asking questions about a run-in he had with his agency's head of security.

Mayor Gavin Newsom described Childs as a formerly well-liked employee who "got a bit maniacal."

Childs was part of the team that built FiberWAN (wide area network) , the backbone of the city's computer network, said Ron Vinson, chief administrative officer for the Technology Department. The system stores about 60 percent of all city government data.

By the time Childs was done with his alleged criminal deeds, he had created a password that gave him exclusive access to that data, prosecutors said.

When police asked him to divulge the password, Childs first gave a bogus code and then refused to provide the correct one even under the threat of arrest, authorities said.

Childs' bosses ordered him to leave work July 9 for alleged insubordination, but they continue to pay his $127,735-a-year salary. Vinson insisted that was standard procedure, even for a city employee accused of four felonies.

A hearing to determine whether Childs will be placed on unpaid leave has yet to be scheduled but could be held as early as Thursday, Vinson said.

On Tuesday, Childs appeared calm as he stood next to deputy public defender Mark Jacobs at a brief hearing in San Francisco Superior Court. Childs spoke only once, when he agreed to appear again in court Thursday. From jail, he declined a request for an interview.

Outside court, Jacobs suggested the case against Childs was overblown and the result of a misunderstanding, and called the $5 million bail "crazy."

"I don't think he's a threat," Jacobs said. "He didn't kill anybody, and murderers usually get a $1 million bail, so you do the math. Someone out there is really scared of something, and I don't know what that is."

Erica Derryck, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Kamala Harris, said that "there seems to be a threat to public safety, and bail was set accordingly." She did not elaborate on what that threat was.

Officials have said they feared that Childs may have enabled a third party to gain access to the computer system by telephone or other electronic device and order the destruction of hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents. However, they have found no evidence of such a device in searches of his home and car.

Newsom said Tuesday that Childs' actions prevented administrators from making changes to the city's computer network, so if the system were to crash, workers could not undertake repairs or upgrades.

"There's nothing to be alarmed about, save the inability to get into the system and tweak the system," Newsom said. "Nothing dramatic has changed in terms of our ability to govern the city."

He said the city has brought in experts from Cisco Systems to try to break back into the network. If the city has to rebuild the network from scratch, Newsom said, it could take up to eight weeks at an uncertain cost. Childs could be liable for the damages.

The mayor said that until recently, Childs was highly regarded in the Technology Department. Now, he said, Childs is a "rogue employee that got a bit maniacal."

"He was very good at what he did, and sometimes that goes to people's heads," Newsom said, "and we think that's what this is about."

According to authorities, Childs had been becoming more and more protective of the system he worked on in recent months.

He was hired five years ago, even after telling officials on a job application that he had a felony conviction. According to court records in Kansas, Childs was convicted of aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary stemming from charges filed in 1982. He was on probation or parole until 1987, records show.

On June 20, authorities said, Childs started taking photographs of the Technology Department's new head of security after she began an audit of who had password access to the system. The woman became frightened by Childs' behavior and locked herself in an office, authorities said.

His supervisors' concern grew when it became clear that Childs had not only given himself exclusive access to the system, but had created a way to spy on his bosses' e-mails related to his conduct, authorities said.