After a three-day trial, a Lycoming County jury Friday convicted a former Williamsport police officer on 28 counts of unlawful use of a computer.

Jurors found Eric B. Derr, 40, guilty of the felony 3 computer-use charges for exceeding his authority on use of the state JNET system, which is used by police to collect data in official investigations only.

Derr was found not guilty on misdemeanor unsworn falsification to authorities, tampering with public records and obstruction of the administration of law from other incidents.

When he took the stand and was asked by Deputy Attorney General Rebecca A. Elo if he abused the state JNET system, Derr, a former corporal who now works in the natural gas industry, replied, “Absolutely not.”

The question came toward the end of the trial presided over by specially assigned Northumberland County Senior Judge Charles H. Saylor.

The computer use occurred over the span of 2015 to 2019, according to the court testimony.

Two of those he ran were female police officers, including Agent Nikita Bonnell, who testified that Derr trained her on JNET but she was not aware he had run her name a couple of times.

Elo, in her closing argument, said Derr “did whatever he wanted” — “looked up birthdays … looked up driver’s license pictures.”

She reminded jurors of testimony from city Assistant Chief Jason Bolt, who said officers know the computer is to be used for law enforcement purposes.

The unsworn falsification charge was in regards to an alleged retail theft at a downtown store. Elo also presented evidence of Derr becoming intimate with a woman he met during a drug arrest and said he then assisted her in avoiding police and evading prosecution.

However, in his own testimony, Derr said it was to show her appearance in the progression of her illegal drug use and when not using illegal drugs.

Elo asked jurors to recall the testimony of Northern York Regional Police Officer Logan Chetaitis, who said he was an intern with the city police in his senior year at Lycoming College. Chetaitis said while riding with Derr in November 2018, Derr ran his name, his mother’s and some women. The intern said Derr told him he thought some of the women were “hot.”

In his closing remarks, Attorney Robert Hoffa said Derr did not deny he ran people on JNET but did not do it with any illegitimate purpose.

“I suggest to you that because of the way he was trained there is no violation of JNET,” Hoffa said. Derr did not tamper with public records or obstruct administration of law, based on the verdict.

“They called him a predator,” Hoffa said. “They are trying to make him look like a piece of junk.”

“We have an officer who ran (names) 1,372 times over about a five-year period, over 10,000 pages of clean runs. All that work is whittled down to those women. Where is the harm? Where is the foul?”

“He admitted a lot of it was personal,” Hoffa said, adding “that’s the way the Williamsport Bureau of Police ran the police. The way he was trained.”

He also reminded jurors of the testimony of defense witness, retired Officer Marvin “Doc” Miller, who said between 2013 and 2019 officers were disciplined for misuse of JNET but he never heard of anybody being charged criminally.