Tag:Admissibility

Key Insight: Court found plaintiff failed to properly authenticate emails allegedly sent to him by Clive Standish pursuant to either Evidence Rule 901(b)(1), permitting authentication through the testimony of a witness with personal knowledge, or Rule 901(b)(4) which allows authentication by appearance, contents, substance, internal patterns, or other distinctive characteristics taken in conjunction with circumstances and, absent admissible evidence to create a triable issue of material fact, granted defendant?s motion for summary judgment

Nature of Case: Fraud

Electronic Data Involved: Emails

Key Insight: Court outlined possible ways to authenticate an email and found that the emails at issue were properly authenticated and admitted where some came from an account bearing the defendant?s name, where many were signed by the defendant, where some contained identifying information, including defendant?s social security number and telephone numbers and other personal facts, and where an investigator recalled that at least two of the email addresses contained in the at-issue emails had been used on the computer of the victim, with whom defendant was staying before her death; per the court, possible ways to authenticate an email include: by ?use of the email address, which many times contains the same of the sender;? by ?[t]he signature or name of the sender or recipient in the body of the email;? by evidence ?that an email is a timely response to an earlier message;? and by presentation of the ?contents of the email and other circumstances? which may show authorship

Nature of Case: Murder

Electronic Data Involved: Emails

Key Insight: Trial court properly determined that Facebook messages from Defendant to his victim were admissible non-hearsay as party admissions pursuant to MRE 801(d)(2); trial court (in bench trial) indicated that it reviewed Facebook messages from victim to defendant and from victim to her sister to ?provide context? for Defendant and victim?s relationship and, on appeal, appellate court reasoned that ?[r]egardless whether some of the messages should not have been admitted under MRE 803(3), the trial court did not rely on the messages to prove that any events actually occurred; judgment of the trial court was affirmed

Nature of Case: Criminal: First-degree felony murder and carjacking

Electronic Data Involved: Social Media Content (e.g., Facebook)

Key Insight: Where Commonwealth offered evidence that at-issue emails originated from an account bearing defendant?s name and acknowledged to be used by defendant; that the emails were found on the hard drive of defendant?s computer for which he supplied the passwords; that at least one email contained a picture of defendant, and that in another, he provided an accurate description of ?the unusual set of services provided by the salon and of himself (?hairstylist, art and antiques dealer, [and] massage therapist?), the judge did not err in concluding the emails were properly authenticated as having been authored by the defendant, despite defendant?s denial of the same

Nature of Case: Convictions related to prostitution

Electronic Data Involved: Emails

Key Insight: Where MySpace evidence was not properly authenticated because the lower court failed to acknowledge the possibility that another person could have created the profile or message at issue, the appellate court reversed defendant?s conviction and remanded for a new trial; court suggested that message could have been properly authenticated by asking the purported creator to authenticate the profile and message, by searching the computer of the alleged creator of the message to determine whether they posted the message, or by obtaining information directly from the networking website that links the ?establishment of the profile to the person who allegedly created it and also links the posting sought to be introduced to the person who initiated it.?

Nature of Case: Murder conviction

Electronic Data Involved: MySpace evidence

Key Insight: Computer printout of ?pawn database? properly admitted under ?Statements in Documents Affecting an Interest in Property? exception to hearsay where employee of police department?s pawnshop unit testified regarding the department?s pawnshop database and how it worked and where the document memorialized appellant?s transfer of ownership of the item at issue to the pawn shop such that the record fit within the stated exception

Nature of Case: Criminal

Electronic Data Involved: Database printout from police department’s pawnshop database

Key Insight: Reasoning that ?proving only that a message came from a particular account, without further authenticating evidence, has been held to be inadequate proof of authorship,? appellate court upheld exclusion of Facebook messages at trial where alleged author of the message at issue admitted the message was from her account, but denied authorship of the message and indicated that her account had been hacked; court?s analysis includes extensive discussion of authentication of social networking content

Nature of Case: Criminal

Electronic Data Involved: Facebook message

Key Insight: Transcript of text messages created when student read the messages to her principal who typed them into a Word document and which were admittedly altered by spell check were properly admitted as evidence by the trial court where the trial court ?ensured that all knew the document was exactly what it purported to be: a transcription of the victim?s reading of the text messages?; where both parties were allowed to argue over interpretation; where defendant was allowed to present evidence that indicated spell check likely resulted in alterations; where the dates and time contained on the transcription and attributed to text messages from defendant mirrored the dates and times identified in the phone company?s records; and where the victim testified as to the content of the messages and defendant did not deny sending them

Nature of Case: Criminal sexual assault

Electronic Data Involved: Text messages