Trial Of John Donovan, IT Guru And Author, Set To Get Under Way

The trial of computer entrepreneur and author John J. Donavan Sr. was scheduled to get under way Friday in Massachusetts. He faces charges of concocting a fake murder attempt on his own life.

The trial will focus on events that took place in December 2005 when Donovan was shot three times and rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital. Cambridge police said Donovan's belt buckle stopped one of the shots and probably saved his life.

But the story soon took an about-face, and law enforcement authorities charged Donovan with staging the shooting. Prosecutors said they are prepared to present evidence that Donovan moved a security camera before the shooting.

Donovan has vehemently denied the charges, saying that two masked men with Russian accents carried out the assault.

The author of several books on information technology, Donovan has been a serial entrepreneur and started several high-tech firms, including Cambridge Technology Partners, which had annual sales of $600 million before it was sold to Novell.

Donovan has been involved in a bitter battle with four of his five children. He also has a long history of instituting litigation involving some of the companies he started.

Early in his career, Donovan was a much-in-demand speaker on IT, well known for his ability to take complex IT issues and boil them down into understandable English and hold an audience with his spellbinding delivery.