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HERE SCREENSHOTS OF TEXT MESSAGES WHICH HAD BEEN DELETED FROM THE VICTIM’S PHONE WERE SUFFICIENTLY AUTHENTICATED TO BE ADMISSIBLE, EVEN IF THE BEST EVIDENCE RULE APPLIED; THE MESSAGES OF A SEXUAL NATURE ALLEGEDLY WERE SENT BY THE DEFENDANT, A VOLLEY BALL COACH, TO THE VICTIM, A 15-YEAR-OLD PLAYER ON THE TEAM (CT APP). ​

The Court of Appeals, reversing the Appellate Division, determined the trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting in evidence screen shots of text messages of a sexual nature allegedly sent by the defendant, a high-school volley ball coach, to the 15-year-old victim, a player on the team. The victim had deleted the messages, but her boyfriend had taken screenshots of some of the messages and those screenshots were allowed in evidence. On appeal the Second Department reversed the conviction on the ground that the screenshots had not been properly authenticated:

“[T]echnologically generated documentation [is] ordinarily admissible under standard evidentiary rubrics” and “this type of ruling may be disturbed by this Court only when no legal foundation has been proffered or when an abuse of discretion as a matter of law is demonstrated” … . This Court recently held that for digital photographs, like traditional photographs, “the proper foundation [may] be established through testimony that the photograph accurately represents the subject matter depicted” … . We reiterated that “[r]arely is it required that the identity and accuracy of a photograph be proved by the photographer” … . which would be the boyfriend here. Rather, “any person having the requisite knowledge of the facts may verify” the photograph “or an expert may testify that the photograph has not been altered” … .

Here, the testimony of the victim—a participant in and witness to the conversations with defendant—sufficed to authenticate the screenshots. She testified that all of the screenshots offered by the People fairly and accurately represented text messages sent to and from defendant’s phone. The boyfriend also identified the screenshots as the same ones he took from the victim’s phone on November 7. Telephone records of the call detail information for defendant’s subscriber number corroborated that defendant sent the victim numerous text messages during the relevant time period. Moreover, even if we were to credit defendant’s argument that the best evidence rule applies in this context, the court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the screenshots. People v Rodriguez, 2022 NY Slip Op 03307, CtApp 5-19-22

Practice Point: Text messages of a sexual nature were allegedly sent by the defendant, a volley ball coach, to a 15-year-old player on the team. The original messages were deleted, but the victim’s boyfriend had taken screenshots of some of the messages. The screenshots were deemed authenticated and admitted by the trial court. The Second Department reversed, applying the best evidence rule. The Court of Appeals reversed the Second Department, finding that, even if the best evidence rule applied, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by finding the screenshots had been sufficiently authenticated.

 

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