Friday, July 24, 2015

A commenter on yesterday's post adds additional context to my prior post about Hae Min Lee's computer. In that prior post, my tenuous conclusion was that no search of Hae's computer was done before it was returned to her family. Now, assuming that testimony given by Detective MacGillivary is correct, that conclusion becomes a lot less tenuous and a lot more troubling.

Detective MacGillivary testified at Adnan's second trial on February 18, 2000. Here's MacGillivary testifying about (1) getting Hae's diary; (2) carefully reviewing the diary; (3) not recalling the entry about Hae copying parts of her diary into her computer; (4) not reviewing the possible diary entries on the computer; and (5) never viewing her computer:

Here's MacGillivary testifying to his belief that Baltimore County never did anything with Hae's computer despite stating that they were going to execute a search and seizure warrant on it:

So, why was nothing apparently ever done with Hae's computer? The likeliest reason is that MacGillivary thought that the computer and Hae's electronic communications were unimportant to the homicide investigation:





Did MacGillivary make the right call? You might recall that Becky was interviewed by Detective MacGillivary. In that interview, she stated that there was talk at lunch about Hae giving Adnan a ride on January 13th, followed by Hae telling Adnan at the end of school that she could no longer give Adnan a ride because she now had "something else" to do.

Hae's lunch ended at 11:10 A.M. and was followed by her computer class and A.P. Psychology class, which ended at 2:15 P.M. Given this, you would think that Hae's "something else" came up in one of these classes. I've speculated before that the "something else" was likely a page from someone on her pager. But given that Hae was in a computer class, it seems just as plausible that the "something else" was an e-mail or some other type of online communication.

Given this, how in the world could MacGillivary conclude that Hae's e-mail account was unimportant? And given that Hae's print diary talked about copying certain entries onto her computer, how could MacGillivary conclude that her computer was unimportant?

-CM

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/evidenceprof/2015/07/acommenteronyesterdays-postadds-additional-context-to-myprior-postabout-hae-min-lees-computer-in-that-prior-post-my-tenuous.html