A wife illegally intercepted her husband's communications with another woman via email and instant messaging when she installed a spyware program on his computer. This software simultaneously (1) copied his communications in real time as they were being transmitted (2)took screen shots and (3) stored them to a new file. O'Brien v. O'Brien, Florida 5th District Court of Appeals, March 1, 2005. http://www.5dca.org/Opinions/Opin2005/020705/5D03-3484.pdf
Is marital "dirty linen" only laundered in divorce court? As jury selection got under way this week in the criminal prosecution against ex-WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers, the defense won an initial round when the trial judge granted a motion to allow inquiry into the "marital infidelity" of Scott Sullivan, who used to be WorldCom's CFO and is now the prosecution's star witness. The judge agreed with the theory that Sullivan's credibility is now in issue and that allowing "adultery" testimony is relevant to test that credibility. January 24, 2005
Rodrigues v. Rosenblatt, 58 N.J. 281 (1971), requires the assignment of counsel to an indigent before incarceration based on a violation of a domestic violence restraining order. Here, the conviction was based on the testimony of a responding police officer who reported the hearsay excited utterance of defendant’s former girlfriend. On retrial, the Family Part is directed to consider the impact of Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004) as to admissibility of the statement. State v. Ashford, ___N.J. Super.___ (App. Div. 2004); 2004 WL 2921881;December 20, 2004.
