Michael Fiola, pictured with his wife, Robin (Photo by Matthew Healey), was just another state employee with a laptop doing his job. One day he was called in and questioned about the content his employer had found on his hard drive after investigating why his Verizon wireless broadband data use was four times that of the average worker. What the Department of Industrial Accidents found was a slew of child pornography and it wasn’t listening to anything Fiola had to say. Immediately terminated on March 14th, 2007, the Department of Industrial Accidents then informed the state police of the evidence which then involved the Boston Municipal Court. The court issued a criminal complaint against Fiola in August of 2007.

Nationally recognized computer forensic analyst Tami Loehrs told the Herald Michael Fiola’s ordeal was “one of the most horrific cases I’ve seen.”

“As soon as you mention child pornography, everybody’s senses go out the window,” she said.

Loehrs found the laptop to be running a corrupted anti-virus program which allowed for a flood of spammers and crackers to hijack the laptop. Loehrs’ investigation for the defense was thorough which lasted a full month. Filled with images of incest and pre-teen porn not visible to the naked eye stored in a temporary “cache” folder, evidence showed that Fiola never downloaded the offending images.

DIA spokeswoman Linnea Walsh confirmed Fiola “was terminated,” but would not recognize the fact that Fiola was completely innocent. “We stand by our decision,” she told the Herald.

Fiola’s attorney Timothy Bradl can’t understand this response.

“Imagine this scenario: Your employer gives you a ticking time bomb full of child porn, and then you get fired, and then you get prosecuted as some kind of freak,” he railed.

“Anybody who has a work laptop, this could happen to,” he said. “Mike Fiola is a hunt-and-peck kind of computer guy. He can barely get on the Internet.”

Fiola, a self-described computer illiterate is taking the DIA to court for “destroying our lives.”

“Our lives have been hell,” said Fiola. “I hope to recover my reputation, but our friends all ran.”

The court officially dropped Fiola’s case Tuesday.