Inside the mind - and config - of Terry Childs

The word is that Childs was the sole keeper of the
passwords for months if not years, and management was
aware of the situation during this period.

The new director of security took a very heavy handed
approach to getting those passwords from Childs,
threatening termination. In other words, Childs wasn't
asked nicely.

Being an obnoxious alpha geek prima-donna, Childs
probably said something to the effect of "OK, so fire me."
Once he was fired, he was under no legal obligation to do
anything further for his ex-employer, unless it
was specified in his contract.

Childs is guilty of being a paranoid control freak, of
not playing well with others, of insubordination. But the
charges leveled at him so far have been ridiculous.

I think what Terry Childs did was wrong, but if this
goes to trial, I think it will be shown that his supervisors
share much of the blame and that the overzealous D.A.
exacerbated the situation with inflated charges and false
alarms. It's not like he murdered his wife or anything.