Central Jersey News: Admissibility of 'black box' evidence

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Central Jersey News: Admissibility of 'black box' evidence

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Admissibility of 'black box' evidence at issue in aggravated-manslaughter case against actress
SOMERVILLE — The wrecked Chevrolet Tahoe former “Melrose Place” actress Amy Locane-Bovenizer was driving on the night of June 27, 2010 can’t testify at her upcoming criminal trial for aggravated manslaughter. Nor can the Mercury Milan she allegedly slammed into, killing 60-year-old passenger Helene Seeman.

Yet that’s precisely what the prosecution in the case is asking for, according to the attorneys representing the actress. The case against Locane-Bovenizer, who is accused of driving drunk and causing the fatal accident in Montgomery nearly two years ago, very well may hinge in part on the admissibility of evidence obtained from an event data recorder in her vehicle — a so-called “black box” similar to the device of the same name often used to determine why airliners crash, according to court testimony delivered late last week.

“It’s essentially the car testifying,” attorney Ellen Torregrossa-O’Connor said.

Torregrossa-O’Connor and Prosecutor Matthew Murphy took turns attacking and defending the credibility of the recorders, which keep tamper-proof logs of statistical data indicating vehicles’ activity before and after a crash.

“Ninety percent of all cars made in this country” have them, Murphy explained, noting that they have been common in some American makes and models since the 1990s. “These are tested, retested, and re-re-retested.”

Murphy said a state’s expert submitted five technical papers, case law and other forms of evidence backing the reliability of the devices. But Torregrossa-O’Connor described “very general terms” and “conflicting information” found in several of those papers, alleging that the technology remains a work in progress.

“This case very well could come down to a matter of two seconds,” she said, “and you can’t play that fast and loose with the record.”

Presiding Superior Court Judge Robert Reed noted that an “extraordinarily high” burden of proof is on the prosecution in its efforts to have the recorders’ data admitted into the record via interpretation by an expert, but he did not immediately make a ruling on admissibility last week...
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/ ... nav%7Chead
Sean Haight, PhD

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