The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Ex-Navy SEAL and nanny 'Otter' does bird over Broadcom

Kindergarten cop, shmindergarten shmop

SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had

A federal judge in California sentenced an ex-Navy SEAL to prison today after he refused to testify against his employer, former Broadcom CEO, Henry Nicholas.

Stephen "Otter" Otten has refused to utter a word against Nicholas before a federal grand jury investigating illegal backdated stock options at Broadcom. The mulish 30-year-old veteran had been hired to "provide security and companionship for Nicholas' children," according to The Los Angeles Times. Claiming his close bonds with Nicholas and kids effectively made him a part of the family, Otter took jail time for civil contempt in his silence, even after being promised immunity from prosecution.

His attorney argued that doing bird would not loosen Otter's lips, citing his client's past Navy SEAL training in resisting interrogation.

"Sitting over at the Santa Ana jail is simply not going to change his mind," Otter's attorney said.

U.S. District Judge James Selna was ultimately unmoved, ruling there are no legal grounds to excuse Otter from testifying. Selna has scheduled a hearing for June 2 to decide if Otter's jail time will be extended.

Otter's loyalty stands in stark contrast to another former aide and bodyguard of Nicholas, Kenji Kato.

Last year, Kato filed a $3m lawsuit against Nicholas, seeking compensation for work done and emotional stress — claiming his forced participation in drugs, whores, and intimidating Judo chops.

Kato, like Otter, claims he forged a family-like bond with his employer. Though we'd like to assume alleged activities such as spiking a customer's drink with cocaine before hosting an orgy wouldn't enter into the childcare side of Nicholas' bodyguard employment. ®

Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner

Latest Comments

Rephrased it

Actually I'm putoff by the former Navy Seal who is willing to be tossed in jail. Who is now a mercenary. And just so ya'all don't think I'm compleetly a dumb bell wasn't it the "Bard" his self that said a coward dies a hole bunch o' times, but the brave guy dyes once; course now he was quoting Julius Caesar who I have it on good authority was one of his roomies back in the hood. While on this train of hokeyisms let me just say prior to the next stop, that I personally enjoy being able to pretty much come and go and say whats on my mind, and yes things are far from perfect and no I haven't done a much to make it better, the thing is, I'm free and I am thankful and no amount of money could entice me to trade it. Next stop, where that coat?

0
0

@ Scott, @ kain preacher

Scott;

"A Navy Seal like any member of the military offers themselves as the sacrificial element required to fulfil the MISSION; done within the framework of your Country you are a Patriot, outside of that your an idiot."

You say this as if being a patriot isn't itself somewhat idiotic when we're all the same race and all stem from the same place anyway. This is particularly so in the case of relatively young nations like America which are only a few generations removed from being mostly European or African anyway.

Being a patriot just means you're ignorant of history and the bigger picture. The fact is, I'm no closer to the Queen than I am Kim Jong Il, I've had just as many dealings with them i.e. none.

kain preacher;

"to be blunt that's a dumb ass response. Seals are trained to resit interrogation,. you are not talking about the average member of the public."

To be blunt, that's an even more dumb ass response. Ignoring the fact that Mark's comment was seemingly humorous sarcasm that yourself and E apparently failed to grasp you're also indirectly suggesting that detainees of Guantanamo are just members of the public. If you really think the Guantanamo detainees (some of Al Qaeda/Taliban's finest) as opposed to the average joe taliban from Afghanistan that's sat in Afghan jails isn't well trained also then you're clearly not in any position to comment on such things. The difference is with the Taliban/Al Qaeda they believe no matter what happens they'll go to Allah so are arguably often even harder to break, these are people with no fear of death, no worries and often nothing to lose - breaking someone like that is much harder than breaking someone who has been brought up in Western society. Of course, Seals are going to be trained better than your average joe in resisting interrogation but don't assume that some of Al Qaeda/Taliban/various other terrorist group key figures aren't also equally hard to break.

0
0

@mark

""Send him to Gitmo.

This will have two possible answers:

Can someone be broken by the interrogation methods used? If not, it isn't working and should be dropped.

How resistant are Seals to interrogation techniques. If they don't crumble, you can more fully brief them and make their operational efficiency higher.

And if he does break, the judge gets their answers."

to be blunt that's a dumb ass response. Seals are trained to resit interrogation,. you are not talking about the average member of the public.

0
0

More from The Register

SCO vs. IBM battle resumes over ownership of Unix
Zombie lawsuit back and wants to suck the brains out of Linux
 breaking news
You don't need phone lines or cable for ANYTHING, says Dish
The satellite-dish man can sort you out with phone and broadband over the air too
 breaking news
What's HP got under wraps? Looks awfully flash and tape shaped
What happens in Vegas won't stay there - we've got the details
Microsoft borks botnet takedown in Citadel snafu
Stupid Redmond kicked over our honeypots, wail white hats
IBM's $1bn layoffs latest: Now axe swings in US, Canada - reports
Union claims 121 storage bods canned after dismal sales
NetApp musters muscular cluster bluster for ONTAP busters
Storage array OS overhauled to juggle more nodes, go down on you, er, less
HP adds 'Haswell' Xeon E3s to entry ProLiant servers
Gussies up MicroServer for SMBs, adds baby switches