[okie01]

Does this describe the same data which Judge Nelson excluded from evidence?

The cell phone images and texts were among the items excluded from evidence, yes.

One wonders exactly why a judge would defer a ruling on such matters until after the trial.

And, yes, it certainly does appear that the judge and the state attorney are working "hand in hand".

Your Dreyfuss analogy becomes more apt with every passing day.

[nathanbedford]

Thanks.

It is not unusual for a judge to defer a sanctions hearing until trial is concluded. However, counsel will argue (usually for the defense) that their ability to represent the client is impeded by a kind of intimidation. That is exactly what the judge was doing when she foreclosed Don West's objections as the judge was interrogating the defendant and then cited to counsel the roles of conduct respecting objection after a ruling-there can hardly be a less subtle way to intimidate counsel. It is counsel's job to advocate on behalf of a client and he cannot do so if he is foreclosed.

The judge might have wanted to defer a ruling until the conclusion of the trial in order to get the prosecutors off the hook. If the jury acquits, the judge can hold that there was no prejudice because no harm was done. Or, the judge might have wanted to establish by her ruling of exclusion that there was no harm done and let the prosecutors off the hook that way and for roughly the same reason.

We have a politically charged case, interference with the orderly course of prosecutorial discretion running from the White House through the Department of Justice, to the governor of Florida, a special prosecutor, and the city administration, tainting a murder investigation, and now we have alleged misconduct by the special prosecutor in failing to disclose crucial evidence. Finally, the trial judge renders a highly dubious ruling excluding that evidence.

It is hardly surprising that blood pressure rises in patriotic hearts who love the rule of law.

[Neidermeyer]

The cell phone was also held by the prosecution for a long enough time that the GPS data which is retained on different memory chips was lost due to the length of time without battery power (not the main battery that can be removed but a slow drain capacitor that serves as a battery had to go totally dead) ... The photo’s and text messages are stored on non-volatile memory chips , funny that the IT guy could easily access the data when the FDLE couldn’t. Even if the file was corrupted by a sudden power down (battery removal while in the process of storing data for instance) the file could still be opened using commercial software designed to get data from broken digital cameras .

The entire AG’s office is corrupt and cannot be trusted to make evidence available. Time to clean house.