Thursday, 4:30 PM
Friends defend hoaxers
By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff
Friends and supporters of the two Boston men charged last week in the marketing scheme gone wrong are trying to marshal public sympathy as Attorney General Martha Coakley considers a way to resolve their cases.
A new website asks supporters to call and urge Coakley, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and other elected officials to drop the charges against Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28.
Supporters are worried that the men’s rambling press conference after their arraignment -- in which they refused to talk to reporters about anything but human hair -- badly damaged their image, making them seem callous and indifferent to the scare their work had caused.
"At this point, the best route of action would be to call these people and request that charges against peter and sean [sic] be dropped," reads a message on the website. "Also, we politely ask that you avoid the civil disobedience and social rebellion acts that many have mentioned. We don’t want to hurt peter and sean’s case by inciting more public outrage in their direction. We want the public outrage to be focused on their innocence."
Wednesday, lawyers for the men met with two prosecutors in Coakley’s office, in hope of resolving the case. After about an hour, no resolution was reached, said Stevens’s lawyer, Michael L. Rich.
"We had a friendly meeting and began our discussions and essentially hope to reach an amicable resolution," Rich said Wednesday.
Berdovsky and Stevens have each pleaded not guilty to disorderly conduct and placing a hoax device in a way that causes panic. If convicted, they face up to five years in prison on the hoax charge and six months for disorderly conduct.
Wednesday, Rich said he did not anticipate Stevens entering into a plea deal because Stevens never intended the ads to cause alarm and is "very sorry for any fear" they incited.
Meanwhile, two public safety officials briefed on the investigation said Wednesday that MBTA police officers were photographing the scene at Sullivan Square Station after the first ad was discovered. Their photos show Berdovsky videotaping police who were investigating the battery-powered, lighted board that he and Stevens installed near the station. The images were handed over to Coakley, one of the officials said.
Berdovsky’s lawyer, Jeffrey J. Pyle, said that as Berdovsky started filming, he was unaware his sign was causing the scare and that when he realized it was, he called Interference Inc., the Manhattan marketing firm that had hired him. The firm told him: "Sit tight. We’ll handle it," Pyle said.
A spokesman for Interference said that the firm’s executives then called their client, Turner Broadcasting System, and then Boston police to tell them the signs were harmless ads for a cartoon.
But Elaine Driscoll, a spokeswoman for the police, said Wednesday that the department has no record of a call from Interference. Interference’s spokesman, Jesse Derris, said the firm insists that it placed the call.
