Naperville teacher surprised by ex-student's arrest
Naperville North High School teacher Kermit Eby has spent the past few days answering e-mails from shocked former students all asking the same question:
Is the man charged in a plot to tamper with the office phones of a Democratic senator from New Orleans the same Stan Dai who attended their advanced placement history class?
Eby's answer is that Dai, 24, is indeed a 2003 alumni of Naperville North - and was one of his star students. Dai served as Eby's assistant in advanced placement history, earned a perfect score on the advanced history exam, and graduated in the top 10 percent of his class.
"He was really well-educated and an excellent student," Eby said Thursday.
Now Dai and three other conservative activists are named in a complaint alleging they entered federal property under false pretenses intending to commit a felony, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Authorities said two of the defendants posed as telephone repairmen in hard hats, fluorescent vests and tool belts and asked to see the phones in Sen. Mary Landrieu's office; one of them had a tiny camera in his helmet. A third man is alleged to have waited outside in a car with a listening device to pick up transmissions.
All four men connected to the case face a charge of entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, which carries up to 10 years in prison.
One of the men's attorneys, J. Garrison Jordan, said they were just trying to record embarrassing undercover video of the senator's staff ignoring phone calls from constituents angry that she supported health care reform.
"You're dealing with kids," he said. "I don't think they thought it through that far."
In the years before his arrest, Dai, the only-child of two musicians already was politically outspoken, Eby said. In March 2003, Dai spoke in support of the war in Iraq in an article printed by USA Today.
"(Dai) considered himself a neocon and had a very strong opinion of politics," Eby said.
Although Eby considers himself a political progressive, the teacher said their opposing dialogue was always constructive. He also said healthy debate is the idea behind Junior State of America, an organization with a chapter at Naperville North that Dai founded in 2001.
"That was the whole thing, we actually are able to exchange ideas and that's why I was uncompromising in my support of him as I wrote his college recommendations," Eby said.
Other Naperville North teachers did not return requests for comment this week, and efforts to reach both Dai and his family were unsuccessful.
After graduating from high school, Dai became editor of George Washington University's conservative paper as an undergraduate.
In 2004, the Daily Herald reported on Dai's travels to Israel to understand how that country deals with terrorism. The trip was part of an undergraduate fellowship program sponsored by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
He later was an assistant director of a program funded by federal intelligence agencies that taught students at Trinity Washington University about careers in intelligence, said university President Patricia McGuire. He left the post in October 2008.
The program was part of a national effort following the Sept. 11 attacks to interest students at liberal arts colleges in careers as spies. McGuire said Dai was an administrator and the program did not teach spy craft.
This week Dai was charged in the phone-tampering plot along with James O'Keefe, 25; Joseph Basel, 24; and Robert Flanagan, 24. All have written for conservative publications or blogs.
O'Keefe is the alleged leader of the group. He is a 25-year-old self-described investigative journalist who made headlines when he posed as a pimp in hidden-camera videos where ACORN staffers appeared to offer illegal tax advice and support the misuse of public funds.
The most recent incident occurred a month after Landrieu announced support for a Senate health care bill. As the vote neared, conservatives complained they were unable to register protests at her offices because their calls were referred to voice mailboxes that often were full.
Eby said he believes Dai "always had a good heart" and made a moral decision.
"I think he believes what he was doing was right, even though he broke the law," Eby said.
All four men were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, which carries up to 10 years in prison. They were not charged with wiretapping.
All four are free on $10,000 bail and are due back in court Feb. 12.
• The Associated Press contributed to this report.
<div class="infoBox">
<h1>More Coverage</h1>
<div class="infoBoxContent">
<div class="infoArea">
<h2>Stories</h2>
<ul class="links">
<li><a href="/story/?id=354624">Naperville N. grad among those charged in phone tampering case <span class="date">[01/28/10]</span></a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>