UW professor sued for alleged cyber-stalking

Oren Etzioni, the inventor of pioneering Internet search engines NetBot and Farecast and director of the University of Washington's Turing Center on computer sciences, has been sued by a Seattle attorney and her law firm for alleged cyber-stalking.

Etzioni, a world-renowned expert on computers and linguistics and a wealthy Seattle venture capitalist, is accused of sending a series of anonymous e-mails to attorney Mabry DeBuys, who represented Etzioni's ex-wife during the couple's divorce. The e-mails are described in a King County Superior Court lawsuit as "highly intimidating, outrageous, depraved and vicious."

The e-mails prompted the law firm, K&L Gates, to hire security for its offices and DeBuys.

"Etzioni's intentional conduct constituted a threat of physical violence, which was accompanied by circumstances indicating he was in a position to inflict physical violence at any time he wished," according to the lawsuit.

DeBuys and K&L Gates are suing Etzioni for an undisclosed amount to recover expenses and damages.

The incident, which occurred in July 2009, was investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office, according to Etzioni's attorney, Steve Fogg. No charges have been filed. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Annette Hayes had no immediate comment.

Etzioni, 46, in a statement last month to The Seattle Times, said he regrets "the bad judgment I displayed ... at the peak of my anguish over the recent divorce and its toll on my family.

"From that point on, I have made every attempt to make amends, and express my remorse both in word and in deed," he said. "I continue to hope that this matter can be resolved in an amicable manner."

Fogg provided a copy of Etzioni's statement to K&L Gates, and spokesman Tom Kelly responded Tuesday: "Professor Etzioni properly acknowledges that what he did was wrong. K&L Gates simply wants to be made whole and to make sure that the firm and its personnel are protected against further wrongdoing."

DeBuys is a partner at the firm and, according to its website, specialized in "family law with an emphasis in complex financial issues." She was hired to represent Dr. Ruth Etzioni, an investigator at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in the couple's 2009 divorce.

In July of that year, according to court documents and interviews, DeBuys received four threatening e-mails in a 24-hour period. The contents of the messages have not been released.

Once Etzioni was identified as the author in November 2009, DeBuys obtained a protective order and filed the civil action.

"Etzioni's intentional conduct was outrageous, beyond all possible bounds of decency, and so utterly intolerable in a civilized society that no person should have been expected to endure it," the lawsuit says.

According to his UW biography, Etzioni in 1986 was the first student to graduate from Harvard University with a major in computer science and went on to obtain his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University in 1991, the year he joined the UW faculty.

He is the Washington Research Foundation Entrepreneurship Professor at the UW's Computer Science Department and founder and director of the Turing Center.

Norm Arkans, the associate vice president for communications at the UW, said the university would have no comment. "We would only be involved if this impinged somehow on his performance," Arkans said. "This appears to be a personal matter."

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com