Mediaboss Marketing

By Denise G. Callahan

What you say on Facebook can be used against you in a court of law.

Whether its a divorce proceeding or criminal trial, posts on social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Skype are regularly popping up as evidence in courtrooms locally and across the country. Ian Friedman, past president of the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, said social media evidence has become a critical element in an increasing number of court cases.

In many cases, searching peoples social networking, combing though some of what theyve shared with the rest of the world, is almost the first place we look anymore, Friedman said. I personally have been involved in several trials where credibility was completely lost in a matter of seconds when the witness was presented with something inconsistent they had written in the past.

Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser recently used photos and posts from the Facebook page of a Fairfield Twp. teenager accused of murder to show a jury that the boy liked violence. Gmoser showed Facebook pictures of 18-year-old Lance Tiernan wearing a T-shirt with brass knuckles and a notation on his page that he likes the movie Fight Club.

Once you put something out on the Internet, its there forever, said Hamilton Police Lt. Carl Sigmon. You need to be careful about what you actually put on the Internet because you never know where its going to wind up.

Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said he has to not only be concerned with the accused persons social media posts, but also with the Internet activity of victims and other witnesses. Failure of investigators to perform due diligence with Facebook and other sites could result in being blindsided at trial, he said.

We need to verify, through whatever access were able to obtain through social media, theres nothing out there that is going to be damaging to our case, Fornshell said. A lot of times we have cases that come down to the credibility of one person versus another person.

Lawyers involved in civil litigation are also scouring through posts on social networking sites, said Fornshell, a former civil attorney. A plaintiff in a slip-and-fall personal injury case seen dancing on an Internet video could torpedo the case, he said.

Tiernans attorney Charlie M. Rittgers said if his client hadnt taken the stand, Gmoser probably couldnt have shown the on-line the posts. But since Tiernan didnt deny the page was his, the postings were fair game. Rittgers said denying ownership would have been a mistake.

See the rest here:
Social media posts admissible in court