The Court of Appeals was involved with several significant evidence decisions during the September 2021 to June 2022 Judicial Term. The court issued decisions addressing, among other evidence matters, the admissibility of screenshots, expert testimony concerning false confessions, impeaching evidence as limited by the collateral evidence rule, 911 calls under the present sense impression hearsay exception and expert scientific DNA evidence based on complex computer analysis. The court also had two of its prior decisions addressing Confrontation Clause issues rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. These decisions will be discussed in this column

Screenshots

In People v. Rodriguez, 38 N.Y.3d 151 (2022), defendant, a 43-year-old high school volleyball coach, was charged with various sexual offenses arising from allegations that he sent text messages with sexual content to the complainant, a 15-year-old girl, a player on his volleyball team. These messages came to light when the complainant's boyfriend saw them on her phone. He took screenshots of the messages and forwarded them to the complainant's mother and himself. He then physically assaulted the complainant, for which he was arrested. Upon his arrest, he showed the screenshots to the police and the victim's mother forward them to the police as well. A detective printed the images after they were emailed to him from the mother's phone. By this time, the complainant had deleted the texts and reset her phone.