This is why I canceled my cable internet connection. These AT&T people are out of control. (Cached from a 12/15/2001 news article at: http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/metro/1215cable.html) By RHONDA COOK and KATHY BRISTER Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writers

It was almost midnight on a Thursday last May when a Marietta police officer and a representative of AT&T Broadband knocked on Carmen Gonzalez's door.

She says they accused her of getting cable service without paying for it. She told them she had a canceled check to show she had paid her bill; they disconnected her service anyway, The next day, Gonzalez called the cable company, which she says assured her it would correct the erroneous information and reconnect her service. A few days later, the police returned and arrested her, charging her with cable theft.

Police handcuffed her and took her to jail, where she remained until she posted bond the next day. In September, she went to trial. It took the jury 16 minutes to acquit her.

On Friday, Gonzalez and 11 other Marietta residents with similar stories filed a lawsuit against AT&T Broadband, demanding at least $50 million in damages.

The lawsuit depicts the cable provider as inefficient, disorganized and malicious. It says the 12 people, arrested in a sweep of two apartment complexes in Cobb County, suffered unnecessary expenses, humiliation and, for some, the loss of their jobs.

"We are outraged and asking for damages," said Henry Fellows, one of the attorneys representing the 12.

AT&T Broadband declined to comment on the lawsuit. Spokesman Reg Griffin said the company hasn't seen it yet.

According to the complaint, filed in Fulton County State Court, the cable company's agent and police officers also questioned children about their parents, tried to enter apartments late at night and ignored residents' claims that they did not have cable service, legal or illegal.

AT&T Broadband estimates it loses $100 million a year in metro Atlanta because of illegal cable hookups. The company ramped up efforts to curb cable theft about 18 months ago, around the time it took over the system from MediaOne.

Since then, AT&T Broadband has checked service to about 516,000 residences -- roughly half the metro-area homes situated near its cable lines. The company uncovered about 110,000 illegal hookups and has sought arrests in about 100 cases, Griffin said.

Of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, only Gonzalez went to trial on theft charges. Soon after she was exonerated, county prosecutors dropped charges against the remaining 11. Their lawsuit claims AT&T Broadband "never even reviewed its customer billing records before filing the criminal reports."

"They came and banged on my door about 20 minutes before midnight," Gonzalez said. "I don't think that it would happen in a fou-fou area like Buckhead."

Two of the plaintiffs said they lost their jobs after being arrested, and one said she has not been able to find another position "due to the fact that a permanent record of her arrest exists." Criminal charges, even if there is no conviction, are routinely reported in the criminal information databases maintained by the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

"Astoundingly, AT&T issued these reports without ever verifying whether [the] apartments were even physically connected to, otherwise equipped with or even able to receive cable television service," the lawsuit says.

The court filing includes a videotape that an AT&T Broadband representative purportedly made when he and a police officer went to the Natchez Trace apartments in May and to Hidden Glen apartments in June. The video quality is poor, with shots of the floor or angles suggesting the camera was being held so as not to call attention to the taping.

According to the lawsuit:

Lisa Burton moved into her apartment in November 2000 and called the cable company to disconnect the service, which had been left on by the previous tenant. The service finally was disconnected on May 10. Two days later, an AT&T Broadband representative came to her door, asking her to subscribe. Burton declined. She was arrested May 15.

In June, Osmisa Peacock was held in jail 14 1/2 hours on cable theft charges. Yet an AT&T Broadband technician sent to her apartment in August noted in a work order "there is no way this person could have had cable prior to today. I had to run a new line in order to hook up service."

Deborah Shepherd, Gloria Marie Mitchell Taylor and Maria Smith were arrested soon after telling AT&T Broadband to disconnect unsolicited service to their units. Taylor was using a satellite service, as were plaintiffs Anthony Scott and Zelda Tepper.

Tracey Massay was charged with cable theft even though she didn't have the service. AT&T Broadband tried to sell her the service even though cable theft charges were pending against her.

AT&T Broadband's Griffin said cable technicians who find illegal hookups usually are followed by a sales team. "We say, 'Now that you've been trialing our service, would you like to buy it?' "

AT&T Corp. is considering selling its cable division, the largest operator in the nation. Among potential bidders for AT&T Broadband is Atlanta-based Cox Communications, majority held by the owner of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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wolfgang.rupprecht+web@gmail.com (Wolfgang S. Rupprecht)
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