Just because I taught federal evidence does not mean that I have any answers, but recently I went through FRED - Federal Rules of EviDence sections looking for answers, and material for a law review essay or article pertinent to this field of ours - chess!! with naughty women! I'll find a better title. LOL
My questions to myself were the two usual ones:
1/ How to exclude PREs - posts, reviews, & e-mails - from evidence; and
2/ How to authenticate and introduce the same.
There is also the preliminary problem /3/ of PREs being used to obtain search warrants and even indictments because there the whim of a magistrate or prosecutor has even more leeway.
We've all heard stories of LE having printouts of TBD and TER reviews in hand when they arrested escorts or hobbyists, and of these being used to obtain search warrants and in interrogation when people do not have the sense to keep quiet.
This post is too long already, but I wanted to start a useful thread on this. I'm not enough of a techie to know how the feds get so much info, but I do know that this is only the beginning.
Let me be the hypothetical bad guy on this. I'll ask you other contributing barristers to come in and defend this poor schmuck defendant and vix when you get back from shooting 99 on the golf course today. We'll switch sides on the e-mail evidence issue tomorrow, but no 69-ing, except maybe for Chloe Jones or Sylvia Saint. LOL.
LE and prosecutors are probably way ahead of us on this. This is what they do all the time. So, hobbyists, we are not giving up any trade secrets. This is info you and the ladies need to get up to speed and save your own necks.
Suppose that State & Fed LE really want to get some people whom they know are active in the hobby, and all they have to start with are these anonymous reviews, say ten of them from several different cities, with the anonymous tag: "Casanova." There is vivid detail of bbj's, Greek with porn stars, and just some usual sportf**king. Casanova is married too, and always whining that his wife's mouth is too small. Some of the LE prosecutors are female, short, overweight, and have tiny mouths. All of the males are fat, poonless, and addicted to donuts. They also want to bring in a hot porn star & porn agency for the media publicity, and have ten reviews from say "Ms Insatiable - the French & Greek Mistress," who travels all over for "companionship."
"Casanova" the Italian stallion, it seems, is a real male slut. He flies to see some women. He flies in others to see him, always crossing state lines in interstate commerce. He encourages even more to tour his home city, Chicago for instance, a staunch Catholic town teeming with sexual frustration. He pays with cash, uses CC's only at hotels, and regularly withdraws from ATMs to keep his cash stash handy.
He uses both indys and agencies.
First, LE prints out all of their reviews and identifies possible crimes and potential witnesses, such as the ladies in question, and the agency operators, the hobbyists who posted reviews of Ms Insatiable.
You realize that if Casanova had been videotaped by LE making these reviews as an interview, they would be like confessions to multiple crimes insofar as LE is concerned. Each review could be a party admission against penal interest, a recently recorded recollection, a statement of mental condition such as joy following a sensational bbjteoku, and a regularly kept business record by the Review Board, all grounds for admission into evidence. The problem for LE is authenticating the reviews as statements made by Casanova. They can do this in several ways.
One is to go to the agencies and indys with search warrants, arrest warrants, and threats. Providers are much easier to find than reviewers, and most have info on Casanova, such as date of encounter, hotel room number, maybe even credit card info. They sing, or are compelled to by court order, perhaps given immunity. The CC# or tel# leads to Mr Casanova, office, home or both, and his wife answers the door. LE seizes his files, records, receipts, diaries, personal & biz computers to verify the e-mail address and everything else they need.
LE method two is to go to the Review site, HnH in Chicago, TBD, ASPD in Texas, TRB in Seattle. LE hits them with search warrants, takes, and studies their servers and computers to verify the ID of Casanova and authenticate the reviews by him and those of Ms Insatiable. They get e-mails, posts, and reviews, and at least a CC# or po box address. LE threatens the Board with conspiracy charges. Nobody has an offshore server, so the data is in there. An offshore server could withhold its contents. It happens all the time in various other areas of activity.
Then LE draws up charges: Mann Act for facilitating transport across state lines for unlawful sex; Travel Act racketeering; prostitution; conspiracy; soliciting; and both felony statutory or common law sodomy & adultery. Maybe a little money laundering or tax evasion.
LE offers the reviews as evidence. How do you keep them out?
Can you? DO NOT SHOOT THE MESSENGER!
-- Modified on 6/30/2002 10:22:12 AM
-- Modified on 6/30/2002 3:50:06 PM
They may have his cred.card # and tel no. but when they come to Mr. C's house, all they may have is a general physical description.
Casanova may have a twin brother or his wife's deadbeat brother may be living with them. He may even have a grown son who is really Casanova.
I don't think you can arrest all males living at the location and sort out which one is Casanova. The burden of proof is on LE to make a positive ID from the info they possess.
Maybe I have added some red herrings to the equation but it is just to show that LE may have some more work to do to ID Casanova before knocking on his door.
Typically LE will have a photo from a driver's license or some other source, and search warrants for the house, office, and all vehicles owned or leased. They may take the vehicles, as happened in Tampa. They can arrest the twin and deadbeat brother and take them all in while they sort out the ID. The son's age is a giveaway.
I went through the US Court of Appeals Mann Act cases of the 1990s to date yesterday. In those cases, federal & state authorities cooperated. They investigated for at least two months. They watched the suspects for a week and went through garbage even. They seemed careful and experienced about how to nab both the persons and the evidence. Usually the accused are caught off guard and clueless as to LE tactics and interest.
We have an off shore server. In fact, I sleep a lot better a night knowing that the odds of someone getting their hands on it a basically nil.