NOVEMBER 2004 - Accident Reconstruction Newsletter

Crash Data Retrieval Case Law

Courtesy of the CSI Web Site

This is a list of some of the cases where the EDR component or a similar vehicle component was used as evidence at trial, motion or other similar proceeding. Notably, these are relatively new cases and few are appellate cases. Because this technology will work its way into the judicial system through criminal cases because of the time it often takes to bring a civil case to trial, most of the early cases to date have been criminal cases where admissibility issues have been decided at "Frye" hearings.

EDR/CDR Cases CSI has been or is currently directly involved in:

People of the State of California vs Vincent H. Sanchez
(murder case - weapon was NOT the car) Case number: 2001 9000 34 (Ventura County, CA)
- W. R. Haight has been retained by the Ventura County DA's Office in this criminal case specifically to assist in the admission of the EDR data over the objection of the defense. To date, there has been live testimony in this case over the admissibility of EDR and analysis of the event in part from that EDR data on the development of an animation to be used by the prosecution at trial. The evidence was admitted at the hearing and used at trial in May 2003. Trial resulted in a conviction, sentence: Death Penalty.

People of the State of Arizona vs Bishop O'Brien
Case number: CR 2003-016197-001 DT (Maricopa County (Phoenix), AZ)
- W. R. Haight was retained by the Maricopa County DA's Office in this criminal case specifically to assist in the admission of the EDR data over the objection of the defense in this hit-and-run case involving the death of a pedestrian. There was live testimony in this case at a pre-trial interview and then at trial over the admissibility, reliability and operation of the system generally and relative to the EDR and analysis of the event from that EDR data and from the police reconstruction. The defense ultimately stipulated that the non-deployment data was from the subject car-vs-pedestrian crash and was reliable. The jury convicted the Bishop of hit-and-run in February 2004.

People of the State of California v, Allen R. French
Case: B156025, Court of Appeal, California 2nd Appellate Dist, Div 3 2003
Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 3917 (Los Angeles, Ca)
- W. R. Haight was retained by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office to assist in the prosecution of a case where issues included the admission of CDR retrieved data and an analysis of air bag and crash injuries with an eye toward "who was driving" issues. The evidence was admitted and defendant convicted. The defendant appealed contending that the trial court erred by letting the prosecution's accident reconstruction expert, William Haight, give his opinion that another occupant in the car had not been driving, because that opinion rested "primarily upon his evaluation of . . . Cory's injuries," but "Haight had no medical training." The appellate court ruled "this claim is meritless." While the data from the EDR was not a part of the appeal, the court mentioned the EDR component in the involved GM vehicle - notably obtained without a warrant as part of the normal police investigation - in the decision: "Data taken from the Monte Carlo's sensing diagnostic module indicated there had been no electrical failures in the airbag deployment system....The sensing diagnostic module has an event data recorder function which, much like a flight data recorder in an airplane, is able to record crash data...." The conviction was upheld.

State of Florida v Larry Glenn
Case number: 53-2001-CF-007094-A0XX-XX, Bartow, Florida
- W. R. Haight was retained by the Office of the State Attorney in this criminal case specifically to assist in the admission of the EDR data over a defense "Frye" motion. No trial date yet. "Frye" hearing set for March '04.

State of Missouri v Scott Bragg
Jackson County, Missouri Case number 02CR737654
- W. R. Haight was retained by the prosecutor’s office. There was a Frye hearing scheduled in this case in May where the evidence was admitted. Conviction.

People of the State of New York v Soukup; People v Slade
Nassau County, NY, Case number pending
Grand jury testimony completed March ‘03
- W. R. Haight was retained by the Nassau County Prosecutor’s office and gave live testimony before the grand jury in Nassau County, NY on the data from one of the cars involved in the underlying crash. "Frye" hearing set for March '04.

People of the State of Michigan vs Stephan Wood
Case number: 02 283 FH, Charlotte, Eaton County, MI
- W. R. Haight was retained by the Eaton County DA's Office in this criminal case specifically to assist in the admission of the EDR data over the objection of the defense where the defendant brought a "Davis-Frye" motion, evidence admitted at hearing and trial in March 2003.

Gina Meadows v Worsham Sprinkler, FSS, et al.
Case number: 01-VS020347-B, civil action , State Court of Fulton County (GA)
- W. R. Haight has been retained by the plaintiff's civil attorney in this case specifically to assist in the admission of the EDR data over the objection of the defense. To date, there has been no live testimony in this case however, a declaration on the system function generally has been submitted.

Other Criminal Cases

Illinois v. William R. Barham
Illinois App. Ct, 5th Dist., No. 5-02-0047, Appeal from the Circuit Court of Johnson County, No. 00-CF-90 (2003)

Colorado v. Cain
1st Judicial District Court, Division 3, Jefferson County, Case No. 01 CR 967 (2002)

Florida v. John Walker
20th Judicial Circuit, Lee County, Case No. 00-002866CF RTC (2003)

Pennsylvania v. Walter Thomas Rhoads
Montgomery County, Court of Common Pleas, Criminal Division, Docket No. 746701 (2002)

California v. Michael Beeler
San Diego Superior Court, Case No. SCD158974 (2002)

Florida v. Edwin Matos
17th Judicial Circuit, Broward County, Case No. 02015762 CF 10A (2003)

South Carolina v. Andrew Cassels
Beaufort County, General Session Indictment No. 2002 GF 070372 (2003)

Florida v. Suzette Ubals
17th Judicial Circuit, Broward County, Case No. 01017144 CF 10A (2003)

Other Civil Cases

Harris v. General Motors Corp.
2000 FED App. 0039P (6th Cir.), File Name: 00a0039p.06

Bachman, et al, v. General Motors Corp., et al
Illinois App. Ct., 4th Dist., No. 4-01-0237, Appeal from Circuit Court of Woodford County, No. 98L21 (2002)

Anderson-Barahona v. General Motors Corp.
No. 99A19714, GA, Cobb County Cir. Ct., Apr. 7, 2000

• Real World Experiences with Event Data Recorders
• The Use of Event Data Recorders in the Analysis of Real-World Crashes
• Event Data Recorder History
• Using EDR Safety Data
• All About the Crash Data Retrieval (CDR) System
• CDR Case Law
• Crash Data Retrieval Certification Classes and Training
• Purchasing a Crash Data Retrieval Kit
• Locate a Crash Data Retrieval Expert
• EDR and CDR Research complete research section on EDR and CDR including PDF downloads and other links.
• ARC Network New Members
• Accident Reconstruction Training Events
  
• In The News
• Membership Information

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